Everyone has an opinion and it is common for writers to express their opinions online. One common problem is when the writer allows their passion (emotion) about a topic to take precedence over their ability to think objectively.

Let’s Look at an Example Then Apply it to Writing…

Death Knights are a new class in World of Warcraft. As you can see from this thread on the World of Warcraft forums, they aren’t liked very much. I play a Death Knight and I love it but I couldn’t help but laugh reading the comments in that thread. There is a fatal flaw with the argument “Why I hate Death Knights”.

A Death Knight is a character that doesn’t do anything until a person plays it. Just like a gun doesn’t do anything until someone shoots it. Or a blog/site will become outdated until the owner updates it. All of these “things” require human interaction.

The truth: these people dislike a particular type of play style or personality type the player has and those styles would manifest no matter what type of character the player was playing. Let’s be real here. A Death Knight can Death Grip. A Warlock can keep me feared and drain my life away. A Mage can sheep me. A Rogue can keep me stunned. All the characters have traits that are annoying at times, especially if they are “abused”. Now let’s apply this type of illogical ranting to blogging.

Passion Doesn’t Mean Emotional

I have a rule to not publish something when I am upset or emotional. I might type it out when I’m emotional but I will not publish it until I can be objective about what I wrote. Sometimes the rant will be published a couple of hours later, perhaps the next day or perhaps never. Sometimes once I get my “rant” out in WordPress and read it, I’m done. I don’t care if anyone reads it. Sometimes I look back at it and think the rants have too many weak points and never publish it.

Remember, everything you do has a consequence. Online the irrational rant can leave the reader to think, “Wow, you’re an idiot” and never come back. Or a worse scenario, the reader thinks you are so much of an idiot that he/she tells others what an idiot you are. I know, one theory is any “press” is good press even when it is negative press. I don’t agree. A negative word-of-mouth opinion can be the kiss of death on converting that person from someone that thinks you are an idiot to someone that respects you.

Don’t Forget about the Back Channel…

Going through sites I notice a lot of rants or arguments that simply make no sense. The article was obviously written while the writer was emotional. There were either no comments on the article or the comments pointed out the flaws in the argument/rant. At this point I look to see if this is a one-time thing or a pattern. Usually it is a pattern. It usually only takes a few seconds to find the next emotional rant that makes no sense.

The internet is a great tool to accomplish goals but never forget one important trend online. Most people with negative thoughts don’t express them to you but are happily telling their friends, family, etc. Just because you can’t find a negative article about you doesn’t mean that people aren’t talking about you negatively.

Don’t set yourself up for an unnecessary fall. Look at your content objectively before publishing it.