Why do so many people expect something for nothing?
I had a very bad experience a couple of weekends ago. I’m not going to go into all the details. I’ll just say that I provide a free service to people and over the last few weeks I’ve gone around and asked for a little more feedback and participation and it just seems to have all backfired on me.
I actually got quite mean spirited comments and emails that basically wonder how I “dare” ask them to participate. Well … duh .. it’s one of the rules of the service that I’m providing.
It’s upsetting. I felt like shutting down the service that I’ve been offering for approximately 10 months, and when the comments started to get a bit nasty I even started to think, to hell with it. I felt like shutting down that website too.
The service that I’m providing is absolutely free yet it actually costs me a little bit of money to provide. Don’t I have a right to require that people follow the very lax rules?
I’m in a very people are assholes kind of mood as I write this. Hopefully that changes.
Then yesterday, one of the mailing lists I run broke out into flames over a non-list topic. It took me into today to settle the list down and get it back on track again. This again is yet another free service that I provide as I run four mailing lists.
On another forum that I was visiting between naps and bleary eyed wakefulness I theorized over something that might affect the sites terms of service and had my words twisted around by two people, one of them an employee of the company I was discussing. It made me feel like leaving that forum all together. I don’t want to do that though as I learn of interesting things on that site, get some help with my sites when I need it, and I also offer some help and advice to others from time to time there too.
I actually got up and checked my calender yesterday to find out if there was going to be a full moon. Honest. I mean when I work in the ER you wouldn’t believe the crazy stuff that happens on Full Moon nights. I figured that perhaps that phenomena had invaded the net too.
I get really frustrated when things like this happen. I put a lot of myself into the things that I do, and many of the things that I do I’ve created with the benefit of others in mind. I often don’t get all that much out of these things for myself (the mailing lists in particular). So when people start turning things around, blaming me for things, or begin to take advantage of the situation it just makes me so angry.
How about you? Do you ever do things for people and end up feeling like you’ve been taken advantage of? or perhaps like my experience yesterday, have a bunch of things that go wrong all at once?
wow! Sounds like you have really had it hard. I admire you for sticking in there and toughing it out! Just know you have friends in the blogosphere that will read and comment on all the stupid self centered that are giving you a hard time. If it were me, I’d tell them all to hit the road. Lucky for them you are a much more kind hearted individual! Good luck with all of it and I will keep you in my prayers!