Let me make one thing very clear. Before the current CBO blog there was a Freeservers, Yahoo 360 and other platforms CBO. The absolute one rule that I had was that there would be absolutely no arguing or any other form of negativity aimed at anyone commenting. CBO is a safe blog and it caters for a universal audience as we get not just youngsters but people from other parts of the world (this is a world wide blog after all) where the legal systems are far less liberal than the UK or United States.
Comics are meant to be fun and entertainment. To take people away from the concerns of the real world. Comics are an escapist medium.
CBO avoids politics as much as it can and it does not take sides in any conflict. There are comic and toy collectors around the world and collecting (not hustling to sell at inflated prices) brings them joy. And why not?
There are several times when persons have attempted to start an internet flame war -insulting and misquoting me to try to get me to respond and thus boost their readership. My response is always the same:
Life is too short and we want to enjoy ourselves and our hobbies, right? So if you see something like a mega post -JLA, Avengers, Frankenstein or what ever then making a comment even if only "Enjoyed that" is welcome. It shows people do enjoy the posts and that encourages me to think about doing more.
If you commented "I am not that keen on the new style Daredevil and prefer the Bronze Age version" then there is no problem. You will certainly not get this reaction
I rather enjoyed the JLA and some of its stories during the "JLA Detroit" phase. It reminded me of the Avengers when it was just Captain America, Hawkeye, the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.I say or write that and you can guarantee this guy is grinding his teeth....
Oh and he will pop a blood vessel screeching about how Justice League Detroit was puerile dog poo-poo and I need to be strung up. I was once talking to some Star Trek fans who were also exhibitors at a comic expo and they were waxing lyrical about Star Trek The Next Generation. I then said "I quite enjoy Star Trek Voyager". Oh boy. A stare turned into almost a "I am going to puke on you!" and the comments from these people who were normally quite pleasant and I knew for some time was both rude and offensive. "Different folk, different strokes" I said but it was clear you HAD to hate Voyager!
I have had people mocking me for my taste in comics because the comic series were not ones they followed.
I saw several times at comic events people who, in the late 1980s and early 1990s were willing to chat about comics and characters withdraw from any attempt at conversation. They saw and were affected by the negativity. Then we have the comic forums were fans found that declaring they loved a certain character or comic got them abuse. The same people run or are entrenched in these forums and most can be considered dead.
And, yes, CBO gets its lurkers.They watch posts and where they can steal material and they gossip back to their co-slime about what has been published. I don't care and I have dealt firmly with trolls in the past and that includes reporting their ISPs and issuing formal complaints. But this does not get onto CBO because that type of negativity sucks the life out of the hobby.
So never be afraid of commenting -and if your English is not that good I can always use an online translator -I do go to that effort a lot. But never ever worry about commenting because on this blog at least you are safe.
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