I love going to look at the sites of people who’ve given hedgeblog (or the egeltje group) a lowball (five stars or below) rating. Their sites are usually so badly designed there’s just no way it could be something like their lofty aethetic sense being bruised by the cuteness of my hedgehog. Or sheer adorableness of my punk rock fairy. It could only be jealousy. Possibly of my cute hedgehog ownership but more likely they’re just upset about my designs making their pages look like little nutty pieces of crap. We’re talking animated gif dogs and reindeer here, people. And not in an ironic way.

Oh I could link to them and let you point and giggle and say mean things right along with me. But I won’t. Because I’m kind. And I understand.

Drunk. Drunk with power they are. I was tipsy like that myself in the beginning. Wildly clicking “1″ on weblogs just because I didn’t agree with their Bush-votin ways. Yes, I was petty and sucked like that for about a day. Coincidentally the day Kerry conceded? No doubt heh. Until I got a 1 from someone who clearly just disagreed with me. Then I stopped voting at all for a few days in a big pout.

Now I only vote when I know I’m going to give them an 8 or more. No, it’s not honest but despite what some may say I don’t feel it’s my job to be everyone’s critic. I also try to leave really nice comments on the sites that I’ve truly enjoyed.

To the lowballers:

I’m not going to perpetuate the stupidity and vote your site low as well. I’m even going to start fighting the urge to look at who rated mine because I’d never change my site to just please semi-anonymous star-clickers.

I didn’t decide to start a weblog again after being offline four years to receive your approval. I did it to have a place where I could play with code. Learn CSS. Jot down my random thoughts. Share links with friends and family. And as a bonus meet new people and hear new stories.

Not to play some stupid junior high clique game. So put that in your pipe and shove it up your ass.