to feel this upset over Twitter jibe?

[RubbishNameChange]

I may live to regret this whole post .

Name changed for this as I'm aware that people will might end up connecting it to me.

I am a blogger, not an anonymous one and happily I haven't been properly trolled yet (touch wood!!). I'm aware that this happens to alot of people with my type of blog and I thought I was ready for it. I had prepared myself for anonymous keyboard warriors, but I don't know how to deal with jibes from people who 'know me'.
My blog is doing really well and I'm trying to use it to pursue a writing job. In the meantime I work two other part time jobs but my dh is still the main earner.

A couple of years ago, dh had a work issue with someone who was my friend. I won't go into detail but it ended badly with hurt on all sides and as friends, we parted ways. I haven't seen them since then.

A few days ago I noticed a tweet on my newsfeed, to a relative of this past friend and curiosity got the better of me. i had a look at their profile.

There was a tweet sent just a few days ago which i believe refers to me and my blog. I'm sure it is as it was posted at a time that my blog was making a few waves in our area and talks about pathetic bloggers. It refers to a 'social media whore' and says 'get a job', it even calls me a hippy . in the past this person has directly and publicly referred to me as parasitic and a whore on Facebook.

There have been other comments from this group over the last couple of years, never addressed directly to me but always available for me to see and oftentimes done in a way that ensures I see them i.e. using hashtags that I'm using or loosely referring to my blog name, incidents from the past or posting veiled insults in local groups & organisations that I'm known to be a part of.

I've brushed them off, though they hurt but I think it's the terminology used in this one that has got to me aswell as the fact that this person lives locally to me and is friends with one of my neighbours. It's just so 'close' that I'm finding it hard to ignore, it feels very personal.

After a glass of wine last night i stupidly told my parents and my Dad in particular was upset. The person in question is a teacher and my parents think this makes it ten times worse especially given the problems with trolling and online bullying amongst teens at the moment. They think I should do something about it, but dh and i think it's best ignored, though I fear it will only get worse if the blog continues to get popular.

Really the only thing that i could possibly do is confront these people and I just don't want to. I still miss some of them and if what happened with work hadn't happened then these would be the people cheering me on, but they aren't and they really seem to hate me.

I can tell myself 'til I'm blue in the face that it's their issue not mine but it really bloody hurts. I promise you, I don't deserve to be spoken about with such hate and it makes me worried to go on blogging and risk the insults getting worse or more direct.

I know this is AIBU but I'm not quite sure that I'm asking that or that I'm asking anything really. My blog isn't anonymous so I don't want to write about it and 'feed the trolls' and I don't want to tell any other family members/close friends as I've seen that it has hurt dh and my parents...but I suppose I just need to talk about it and I'd like to know what other people think.

I know I could just be asking for trouble posting on AIBU, (I'm a fully fledged Mnetter (naice ham, pomme bears, leave the bastard) but where else?
Without telling the full story, you might think I'm just be being paranoid' but believe me I am not. It's not a case of 'is about me'; I know it is and it's been going on for two years!!! This just happens to feel like the straw that broke the camel's back.
So AIBU to be crying whilst writing this, letting myself feel like a bullying victim, letting it get to me? AIBU to ask you what, if anything, I should do about it?

Confront the fuckers

"keyboard" warriors are a lot less brave face to face

and if you can't confront them, I will come down and confront them for you

have a hug

and more wine

And DON'T let them get to you. They are rather silly. Unless they are 12 there really is no excuse for being such twunts

you can report tweets and FB posts as abusive. I imagine twitter will be all over directly abusive messages at the moment. Veiled insults are probably more difficult for them to deal with.

Of course the best thing is to stop looking this person up and block anyone who joins in.

I did block on Facebook but you can't do that on twitter and the worst part was that some cretin who didn't realise that one of the tweets referred to me, went and retweeted one thinking it was funny! So its right there on my feed. I don't look all the time, probably every few months it gets the better of me, but when i do I'm always shocked by the venom of it all.

The only directly addressed one was around two years ago, everything else is veiled

You sound really upset and I feel for you. My family had a catastrophic falling out with another family 2 years ago and they have used fbook from time to time to fuel rumours etc. It is so bloody unfair, you don't want to stoop to their level by doing the same but at the same time it is distressing to think that others are reading this, thinking this about you. I have chosen to do nothing even though I am sorely tempted. We also feel.like victims of bullying and it was a small relief when the headteacher at our Dds school agreed that this was the case and that she felt bullied by them too.

OP you can block on twitter.

Why do you think they do it?

To get a reaction, to belittle you, to make you feel bad about yourself.

Which is why you should - must - ignore, ignore, ignore.

Ps please don't use the word cretin, it's disablist.

Wilson really? i genuinely didn't realise, how? Or am i just being really ignorant?

Alisvolatpropiis How? Do you mean set my twitter feed to private? i can't, I use it for work etc.

Catgirl, please feel free lol

your post is a bit confusing, unless I'm just reading it stupidly -

You talk about one person your DP had a falling out with, who was a friend of yours? but then as you go on, it becomes 'them' and a 'group'. Not sure what's going on there.

I'm sorry you are upset, but being realistic - unless someone has posted something directly bullying, threatening or abusive, then going after them via their place of work or public role is unlikely to get you anywhere. Calling you a 'social media whore' isn't abuse.

Your family will always be upset on your behalf if someone says something unpleasant about you 'publicly' on social media. It's their job. Ignore their reaction, and don't tell them unless you really can't help yourself, because it will upset them. They cannot be your barometer here.

A bit of advice you almost certainly won't want to hear, but believe me - if you want to be a writer, with work in the public domain - you will have to put up with all that and a thousand times worse. Knowing it will happen and dealing with it are very different things. It is horrible but you will have to find a way of ignoring it/coping with it/not spending emotional energy on it like this. I'm sure you will get a lot of 'fighting talk' here in AIBU - but if you become a published writer, you will get flak, and some of it will be the keyboard warriors you assume might be on your side. Trust me.

I hope you can move on quickly.

That is really bad coming from a teacher. Not really setting a good example, is she?
I think you need to report it.

I agree with you, i absolutely do, but like I said it's the fact that they live near me and they 'knew me'. Basically nastiness is being spread about me, whether it's made blatant or not and I'm not a public figure or a celeb and it isn't a one off. It isn't just one tweet or one facebook post it's two years worth of shit and really my blog has just given them fuel. If someone decided to pick at me after reading my writing, i think I'm ready for that, this is picking at me about 'me'.

I see what you mean about the individual v group. The friend in question in the beginning, just disappeared, it's one or two family members and what used to be mutual friends who are doing this. About 4 people in all but this particular one happens to be the best when it comes to choosing the most emotive words.

You can delete tweets on your feed you don't like (below the tweet there is a trash can)
You can block people, find them in your list of followers and to the right hand side.

It's never nice to find out people don't like you it feels horrible but there's not much you can do, to have a blog you need a hide like a Rhino unfortunately.
I'd either confront them and brazen it out or just forget the bastards, they don't like you and you just have to accept that .

rain & solve As it isn't directly addressing me, i think reporting it would just waste alot of people's time and probably make it worse.

I do think that my dad's right and coming from a teacher it's worse, but I don't think reporting it will get me anywhere, though he'd happily have done it last night!
I think i ignore it (if i can) and risk that people will believe their shit, confront them and risk making a bad thing a whole lot worse or just stop blogging.

definition of cretinism I didnt know either till somone here pointed it out to me

Well definitely don't stop blogging, you musn't give in tothese bullies. Whether you report them or not you cannot allow them to curtail your life like this. They are clearly rather unpleasant people otherwise they would not be doing this. You definitely have the moral high ground if that helps!

Don't give up blogging as it will make the "bullies" feel like they've won.

I would definitely report it given he's a teacher as well. Or else blog about cyber bullying and thread in this personal example.

it's a she. It almost feels worse that it's a she, that 'she' is a mother too. Honestly it beggars belief.

I'm a blogger with a high volume of hits and in the top 500 of the parenting Tots100 thingy and on the Mumsnet Blogger's Network too.
I also have a big Twitter following.
Touch wood, I have never had any big troll incidences, but if I did, seriously ignore them.
I have had a few idiots post negative comments about my blog if I dare to post something they don't agree with though. I blocked them on Twitter. You CAN block on Twitter so they can't tweet you anymore or contact you in any way.
Don't let them stop you blogging. Like any troll, just don't feed them!

It's really difficult for anyone to comment without knowing what is being said (I'm not encouraging you to post details, it sounds like it might 'out' you).

If you report something, you really have to know what it is you are reporting and why (threats? racial or misogynist threat? actual slander, as in someone saying you have done something you haven't?). If you can tell that reporting it isn't an option, just forget about it totally - there will be no shortage of kindly intentioned comments from badly informed people who tell you to 'report them.'

The origins of this feud sound obscure (a work falling out with your partner that went wider, and now involves some of your family members?). Again, it's hard to comment - but if you can't do much about it, and can't or don't want to arrange a meeting to discuss a more amicable way forward, then as a named blogger, you are likely to get more flak.

Don't think it will be different with writing, btw. Writing is a very personal thing. People often 'criticise' the work and the writer together, esp online. Everyone thinks it will be fine and they will be 'objective' about it til it happens, and then they have to find a way of dealing with it. The most you can do is start finding strategies for coping now.

Rain you're probably right. It's their family members not mine. A falling out at work that had huge consequences within our circle of friends so their family members and some of our old mutual friends are 'the group'.
I can't report them , because I can't actually prove that they mean me or intend me to read these words. As i said they are seldom directed at me just placed so that i will see them or include parts of my tweets, posts so that i know they are getting at me.

If it's not just a case of online and it's someone in RL as well, either have it out with them and confront them as to what exactly their problem is, or ignore them.
I'd be the one going for the 2nd one as I hate confrontation

I can't report them , because I can't actually prove that they mean me or intend me to read these words. As i said they are seldom directed at me just placed so that i will see them or include parts of my tweets, posts so that i know they are getting at me.

If you're certain they're about you,how are you reading the tweets? Are you following them on Twitter? If so, why?

Im not following them, but we still have mutual friends...lots of them and we live in the same village, so local hashtags etc. i use it and the next tweet with the hashtag will be a jibe at 'someone' and it's then 'favourited' by that whole group. that's just an example, like i said, sometimes their stuff (not about me) gets retweeted by people and i see it and curiosity gets the better of me and i look at their other tweets.

You can block on twitter.

I blocked my husbands ex fiancee on twitter because she is a boring attention seeking bitch
just go to their profile and block them