This is why we can't have nice things.
Sad to see that my favorite writer on TV, Steven Moffat, may have deleted his Twitter account.

Recently he'd been on twitter asking for advice to see if there was a way (outside of blocking) to not have certain posters tweet to him or use his @Steven_Moffat handle when tweeting about him.

He also tweeted a link to a British standup's blog entry about how anonymity on twitter can lead to very rude, vulgar, and cowardly attacks.

That blog entry also had a lengthy breakdown on why tweeting about someone AND using their twitter handle (for example saying @Steven_Moffat instead of just "Steven Moffat") was a pretty obnoxious practice. To anyone following my twitter feed: Déjà vu, right?

Months back, I closed my Formspring account because a couple posters (heck, who knows, it may have just been ONE very aggressive and obsessed person) were using the anonymity of that site to...
1) Make threats about what they would do to me & my family if they were ever found us.
2) Wish death upon me in very specific ways (from cancer to vehicular manslaughter).
And 3) To show that they had my home phone number and contact information. (Which lead to me alerting the police and getting a private/unlisted number. Yeah. That was fun.)

And this was ALL because I was writing Spider-Man stories they didn't enjoy-- AND I was spending my FREE TIME answering anonymous questions from fans. (I've recently reopened the account with a kazillion privacy settings. But honestly? I'm just not "feeling it", and I rarely go there anymore.)

Writing Spider-Man is small potatoes compared to Doctor Who. Between direct market, legal downloads, subscriptions, collections, and foreign sales, I'm looking at an audience well below 500,000 readers. And only a VERY tiny slice of that pie is on a train to bat-shit-crazy-we're-going-to-threaten-your-family-and-wish-you-cancer-town.

But the lesson I've learned from doing this for 20 years-- as your audience grows exponentially from project-to-project, that slice grows exponentially as well!

Dear God, I cannot even IMAGINE what it must be like to be on the receiving end of that much internet-crazy when you're the showrunner/lead writer for one of the most beloved and longest running television shows of ALL TIME.

The man's a saint for staying here as long as he did.

I only had VERY brief interactions with Mr. Moffat on twitter. He commented on one of my tweets, RT'ed me twice, and had a VERY quick Direct Message exchange with me after the Toronto premiere of ASYLUM OF THE DALEKS. And, boy, was that a treat. So thanks for that, sir, wherever you are! :-D

I have to say that how cool that felt really changed MY presence on twitter. It made me realize that in my small pond, there are people that feel that way when I make even a quick response. That's something I very much take to heart now.

If, like me, you're feeling down about this-- if you enjoyed regularly reading Steven Moffat's tweets and are bummed that they're gone-- take heart.
The internet is changing. Social media is still in its infancy, and I honestly think that the age of crazy-psycho posts are on the way out. (Don't believe me? check out articles about @JohnVee, @MisterE2009, and Alyssa Douglas to see what I'm talking about. Just Google 'em, sit back, and read in amazement.)

End of the day, I'm glad we got to enjoy Steven Moffat's time on twitter as long as we did. If you can, do me a favor and check out his work on DOCTOR WHO, SHERLOCK, JEKYLL, and COUPLING. Most of it is on Netflix streaming here in the States. And ALL of it is BRILLIANT!

ttyl

(And be nice, okay?) :-)

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