Not to gloss over the nastiness, but I gained a little perspective after perusing Usenet newsgroups. Talk about the "Big, bad Internet". When I came back here, everyone seemed like pussycats by comparison.

Of course, we shouldn't aspire to be like the Usenet nasties.

In order to stay on Internet boards, I've learned that I must develop calluses. The bad words from people I don't know, I take with a grain of salt. The good words can only be encouraging.

The times I've been truly hurt, it's been from people I do know, since they know which buttons to push. And, of course, I've been on the opposite end of that equation, too. fortunately, in those cases, I can work it out with friends.

With trolls, it's best not to feed them. If someone says something and no one responds, it falls right off the board, especially in this format.

Teresa