Online Readers Should Tone Down the Invective

Who are you people?

You get invited to make comments about my work on The Washington Post Web site, and you turn my online message post into a dart board. You swagger into cyberspace under assumed names and start hurling invectives like drunks in a barroom brawl.

Sorry, but I must ask some of you to go elsewhere.

I wrote a column recently about alleged racial discrimination in the D.C. fire department, then went to see what I hoped would be your enlightened responses. What I found was uva2manassas and ged0368 at each others' throats. And now I've had enough. I'm used to getting impassioned feedback, but this was out of hand.

UVA2: "Instead of stupidly reponding 'racism' to every critism, prove blacks aren't lazy morons by bettering yourself."

GED: "you are a racist white reneck. White ppl did the slaving on every race."

Look at that, using broken English like shards of a whiskey bottle to attack each other.

Such uncouth behavior not only discourages thoughtful guests from expressing their views, but it also diminishes my online reader profile. As my colleague David Ignatius noted in his op-ed column Sunday about the future of the newspaper business, newspaper Web sites need to become more profitable if we are to survive. And the more we know about our online readers, the more precisely we can sell their demographics to advertisers.

Sure, I get some intelligent comment, but lately I'm wondering what to make of the growth of an increasingly noxious demographic.

UNOJKLHH1: "far left wingers like [Attorney General Eric] holder and [President Barack] obama's version of a "discussion" on race is one where they talk and everyone else shuts up and bows down to the lord and savior al sharpton . . . its white people's fault for bringing em over here -- take up a collection and give em a boat ride back home."

INTERACTIDIOMAS: "Well, your kith and kin killed most of the original inhabitants here, captured africans to build a nation here- sounds like YOUR work is done- guess we should send you back to Ireland, Scotland or some other place that your kind is descended from; don't let the elections hit you in the azz, as you leave!"

People, please. What advertiser is going to be attracted by stuff like that?