The Unofficial Apple Weblog (TUAW)

In an unexpected turn of events, today the popular Apple enthusiast weblog, TUAW, announced that it's closing its doors, effective immediately. The unending barrage of negative comments over the last few months has driven the TUAW bloggers to take this unusual step. Lead blogger, C.K. Sample III said of the move today, "The Apple fanatics have sucked the love of blogging right out of me. I cannot post anything without people freaking out and calling me names and saying we should just quit. So, we had a meeting, and we're quitting."

"I concur completely," said co-lead blogger, Scott McNulty. "It's definitely been a problem lately. Just take a look at the negative comments in Dan's light-hearted April Fool's Day post this morning. Why would anyone want to keep writing news for people like that? So, enough is enough, I'm done. Through. Kaput."

Whatever the case, it's definitely clear that the level of negative comments has increased dramatically in the last few months. Some industry analysts believe that it's the result of TUAW's increased traffic. Tolu Nombre, a fellow at the Institute for the Study of Anonymity's Effect in Online Communities said, "Whenever a website becomes popular and offers people a way to post comments anonymously, it invariably attracts a crowd of negative commenters. Anonymity can provoke unusual responses from normally decent people, turning them into 'griefers'--commenters whose sole purpose for living is to post anonymous and rude comments on websites. It's quite remarkable."

TUAW is not the first website forced to deal with this phenomenon. The popular techno-nerd website, Slashdot, has been dealing with griefers almost as long as the Internet has been around. While many of Slashdot's readers have gravitated to the latest negativity black hole, Digg.com, some apparently have found their way to other enthusiast sites such as TUAW.

TUAW blogger Fabienne Serriere was philosophical about the whole issue, "Not much affects me, having grown up with a surname all too familiar to the griefer community. I've just learned to let it all roll off my backside."