I love the way some people are shocked, shocked that nasty commentary happens on the web. Consider the latest incarnation of being shocked, Jakob Lodwick:

I closed my blog on June 26, 2008. I could no longer handle the relentless, vicious, public attacks from a digital lynch mob towards the personality traits I have no intention of changing, such as my curiosity and my self-confidence.

Apparently, turning comments off (and no longer tracking vanity feeds) was just way, way too complex for this guy. I love the way he outlines the progression, too:

I am walking away from what might be called The Social Web. This comprises any site where 'anyone can sign up' and electronically socialize with one another. The story is the same with most of these sites: a few settlers discover and make themselves at home, enjoying the solitude. Increasingly, less-adventurous people find their way to the site. The population begins to snowball. A vocal minority of thoughtless jerks begin to speak up, driving away the settlers. In the worst case, the result is something like MySpace.

As Mathew Ingram points out, it's not like this is new. Back in the glory days of BBS systems and USENet, things went through the same progression - a cool BBS or group eventually got weighed down by the trolls, and the early users all bailed, hoping to find a quieter spot. For a good example of that, trawl through the archives of comp.object sometime, and notice how things went to heck when the "OO sux0rs!" crowd started showing up in numbers.

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