I have disagreed with just about everything RT has written, sometimes because I generally disagreed with her position, other times because I specifically believed her interpretation of something (e.g., an article or study) was off-target. So, I didn't read that piece on CR until now.

While I am sure that it was unpleasant having people make fun of you and maybe even scary to get threatening emails, I did not find the tone of her article to be especially venomous. I also don't think it was unfair of her to cite to your name and blog because, honestly, if she hadn't, I would not have believed that an advocate of CR had written about amenorrhea due to weight loss as being something positive. I would have believed that she had made such a quote out of whole cloth, basically creating a straw man position to critique.

She did not use profanity and she did not defame anyone, unlike some of the internet trolls who frequent Salon.

I believe that she could have, probably should have, interviewed you or some other CR advocate. On the other hand, I doubt that would have changed her mind about CR as her main argument was that she finds both CR diet restrictions and the thought of living to be 150 unpleasant, not that CR fails to extend life.

Then again, it did not happen to me, so maybe I don't know enough about her article and what happened to you in the days and, possibly weeks, after her article was published.

The trolls are a double-edged swored. On one hand, you realize upon close inspection that they don't make any sense. On the other hand, you start to think that you are better than them because you are able to put together coherent and logical thoughts. Sometimes the comments really make me wonder whether or not schools are even attempting to teach reading comprehension anymore. It's like being a politician in a presidential debate and sitting helplessly by while your words are twisted by a virulent speechwriter on the other side.

I've found that it's a fine balance between ignoring and acknowledging.

Honestly, the reason I keep coming back here is that, as far as letter boards go, this has actually been one of the best. Have you ever looked at the Slate forum or the late Yahoo News message board? It's always the same five trolls copying and pasting the same ridiculous manifestos hundreds of times over and taking pride in their clever use of words like 'libtard' - even when the story has nothing to do with politics.

In contrast, this board is largely populated by intelligent, articulate, and witty people (like me! ...no? just kidding, then) who, even when they're trolling, at least bother to write full sentences. Oftentimes I enjoy reading the letters more than the actual article. I have several theories for why this is. First of all, Slate articles are often linked to directly from the MSN start page, which is the default homepage for anyone using IE, which means that anyone who uses a computer may be tempted to share their ineffable wisdom with the world (the horror!) Yahoo suffered from a similar problem. I used to go on it for amusement sometimes, but pretty soon it just made me profoundly depressed to think that the cretinous trolls are actually real people who exist in the world and are not only content with, but proud of their barely-functioning brains. Not to mention that some of them might actually vote. Getting rid of that message board was long overdue.

What makes Salon different? For starters, the whole site pass thing might scare away trolls who just want to post within five seconds, or people with short attention spans in general. And though you guys are fairly successful, one usually still has to know about you to find you. For my part, I remember I started reading Salon after constantly seeing the name when searching for book and movie reviews. So one assumes that someone who's made their way to Salon is at least somewhat literate and has some legitimate interest in either art, culture, or politics. And I think it's partly because of this that Salon readers are, by and large, pretty left of center. Once in a while some Bushite will make his way here to bitch about 'Salonistas', but they don't stay long, just like I don't stay long at right-wing toilets like Riehl World View and the like. And really, that's fine, because even when discussing a clearly opinionated political piece, Salon readers will often have far more disagreements and make far more nuanced and interesting arguments than commenters on right-wing blogs, who differ only in their choice of pejoratives to hurl at liberals (I would say that the 'left' is far less monolithic than the right in general). There are a few trolls that keep coming back, like Ben Dover in the Broadsheet forum and (until recently) the guy who obsessively stalked Tom Tomorrow to say he was 'phoning it in', but these are absorbed by the community and tolerated as a sort of ridiculous spectacle, like that crazy neighbor who stands on the sidewalk yelling at stray dogs.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that, whatever you guys have been doing, the model has worked for the most part. Keep it up!

I've read a bunch of these letters. A common theme is the Troll Theory; immature, stupid people show up and ruin it for everyone because they made a comment which burrows into mature, smart people's brains. These smart people imagine trolls as uneducated pimply cheeto eaters drooling over their computers with dirty hands and dirtier minds. Considering a lot of the letters I've posted, I'm sure that many people imagine me as a troll, unworthy of a voice. Let me fill you in a little.

I've thought about why I post the letters I do, and I've contemplated the motivation of us trolls. We all must agree that Salon attracts a highly intelligent readership simply based on the highly intellectual and incredibly well-written articles. Unintelligent people go to sites like gawker.com and youtube and netscape or whatever, not salon.com. This leads us to the main question: Why do some intelligent readers post such seething and often poorly written letters which don't exactly reflect our current chic liberal mores?

I have the answer. These trolls tend to be from a younger generation. I'm 23, and I developed my writing style through years of IM conversations with my friends in high school and college. I always had trouble writing papers for school because I never learned (or cared to learn) how to circumspectly stalk a moral or a point. I didn't need to learn how to do that. When I communicate online every sentence is a point. When faced with unstellar grades in writing or english or whatever I didn't care because look who makes money in America; a great writer? or a great businessman? We all know that answer.

Also, growing up, I was great at toeing the PC line. (In 2001 everyone said 'fag,' now it's the F-word, I've noticed, and I haven't said it in years). I've evolved to mirror what liberals think is proper moral conduct. I never challange it because why?? You will only look like a bigot, even if you're not. I sat almost silently through discussion sections in my liberal elite college courses because I didn't want to let anyone know that I wasn't a flaming liberal. I lost my voice because I was so good at following the PC codes.

Now I have a voice, Salon. And dammit, I deserve one. I've watched so many of my friends go off to Iraq that I deserve to be able to say something about it. 23 year old Americans have little voice (unless we're lindsay or britney or some other famous dunce). We are the voiceless soldiers, the voiceless person who fills your food order, the voiceless person who picks up your garbage, the voiceless person who will pay for your social security, the voiceless person who will have to deal with global warming. Salon has given me the opportunity, through the gift of anonymity, of voicing the opinions and stances I've developed growing up as an aware American.

I leave snarky letters. As a younger brother, I know exactly how far I can push a person before they explode, and I use that skill on this site often.

One more time all together now: Liberals have the Daily Show, I have this.