Apologies for the very late post. It's been a tough morning.

I hate hangovers too, but coffee does help! :D

The goal with Morning Coffee has been to give members some talking points every day. As a result, we've had some great discussion on the direction of Snapzu, and it's been a pleasure getting to know this small community. However, this is a user-created series and user feedback is vital. So, tell us what you think about these Morning Coffee posts. Are they useful? Are they unnecessary? What kind of content would you like to see in them? How would you improve them?

Personally I think the "Morning Coffee" series is a fantastic idea and I find myself thoroughly enjoying each post. I think at this point in our community's story these posts bring us together a lot more effectively than other type of "niche" content that not everyone can engage in based on personal interests or lack of knowledge of the subject matter. Being able to get together and discuss subjects that we can all get involved in is really important as niche content tends to spread us too thin (at least at this point).

Yesterday, there was an incident with an angry user. He felt he had been wrongly censored (he was not), and predicted the downfall of Snapzu due to stifled freedom of speech. This sentiment alone would have been acceptable, but what followed was a verbal rampage in which he insulted other users and threatened (against the rules) our beloved /u/drunkenninja. Ultimately, as per the site rules, he was removed and his posts deleted.

This situation was obviously the case of someone that was either mentally unstable or someone that made an attempt to troll and harass other members to get a raise out of us. The good advice given by our community was not only ignored but returned with threats and harassment. In addition to this I was targeted by this member prior to this situation but was soon presented with an excuse blaming his roommate got a hold of his account. When...

Apologies for the very late post. It's been a tough morning.

I hate hangovers too, but coffee does help! :D

The goal with Morning Coffee has been to give members some talking points every day. As a result, we've had some great discussion on the direction of Snapzu, and it's been a pleasure getting to know this small community. However, this is a user-created series and user feedback is vital. So, tell us what you think about these Morning Coffee posts. Are they useful? Are they unnecessary? What kind of content would you like to see in them? How would you improve them?

Personally I think the "Morning Coffee" series is a fantastic idea and I find myself thoroughly enjoying each post. I think at this point in our community's story these posts bring us together a lot more effectively than other type of "niche" content that not everyone can engage in based on personal interests or lack of knowledge of the subject matter. Being able to get together and discuss subjects that we can all get involved in is really important as niche content tends to spread us too thin (at least at this point).

Yesterday, there was an incident with an angry user. He felt he had been wrongly censored (he was not), and predicted the downfall of Snapzu due to stifled freedom of speech. This sentiment alone would have been acceptable, but what followed was a verbal rampage in which he insulted other users and threatened (against the rules) our beloved /u/drunkenninja. Ultimately, as per the site rules, he was removed and his posts deleted.

This situation was obviously the case of someone that was either mentally unstable or someone that made an attempt to troll and harass other members to get a raise out of us. The good advice given by our community was not only ignored but returned with threats and harassment. In addition to this I was targeted by this member prior to this situation but was soon presented with an excuse blaming his roommate got a hold of his account. When he later made threats against me through PM's as well as publicly I was forced to enforce our rules against harassment and personal threats.

There's no doubt we will see many more like him — users who always find something to complain about, and in the most abrasive manner. They will be absolutely rigid in their beliefs, and oftentimes their intent will not be to solve problems but to cause trouble. Sometimes they will have valid complaints worth discussing, which is fine, but it won't change the fact that certain behavior is not welcome here.

I think these situations will have to be handled on a case by case basis, but we need to stay strong and promote/reinforce the positive aspects of this community!

On a larger, more anonymous platform such as reddit, the user may have had considerable support from others. That we Snapzites handled it so well was revealing of a mature community mindset, but it also revealed how easily we can be disrupted by a toxic member. Yesterday was easy because he was one and we are many, but what will happen as the gap lessens? What if members are not breaking any rules but trying their best to be assholes? Would it be so easy to deal with not only disagreement (which is fine and even necessary) but widespread negativity and rudeness? It's an unavoidable part of real life, but is it something we need to come to terms with in this online community?

I guess we will cross that bridge when we get there, but I am really impressed at how calm and accommodating everyone was even to someone so negative and abusive.

While we're on the topic, how do you handle assholes in your daily lives?

It really depends on the situation, but I personally just ignore them when I can.