Recently, I’ve been bombarded with negative, mean attacks by one specific ‘fan’ we’ll call A who is on one of my social networking sites. He began relating by being very sexual in his comments to me – quite embarrassing on so many levels: on my Facebook wall that was public; making innuendos that were quite lewd; acting as if I might have interest in him (I don’t know the guy); and causing me to figure out a way to respond to him that wouldn’t make him ‘wrong’ but would put him in his place so he would stop.

I don’t know anyone that acts like that around me, especially on what I deem to be a business environment.

From my responses, he upped his attacks. After ultimately (with a lot of prodding) apologizing, he then began making nice comments about my work; but he then proceeded to attack my decision facilitation material, and then me, personally.

I would obviously let all this go as just one bad apple, but this man is on the net. His comments can be tracked, as can mine. He’s got a ‘following’ on Facebook and LinkedIn: with a flick of the wrist, he can make me look bad or worse (I can’t even imagine), depending on his whim.

And herein lies the downside of the net. Any crazy person can say anything they want and make anyone look bad – and folks get to read it. It’s possible that someone can destroy another person’s reputation, or marriage, or business, or marketing with the flick of a wrist. And there is nothing anyone can do about it but rebutt.

Let’s all take some time to be kind to each other, now that one word, one comment can cause a tsunami effect.