Ah, the internet wars. Sometimes it’s an attack from the /b/tard strike force, and sometimes it is just simply an angry little troll that is feeling particularly crabby. But the internet word wars are usually never more than an annoyance, and are often good for a light-hearted laugh. Unless it is off-topic spam, someone is being threatened, or the comment says something overtly racist or bigoted, we here at Girls Guide have an unwritten policy that even the trolls get their moment in the comments. Hey, sometimes a troll to me is not a troll to you and vice-versa. And besides, who am I to judge and not approve a comment? Maybe the readers agree with the nasty comment.

But to lose your job over a comment you leave on the interwebs? That happened to one St. Louis dude when he left the wrong comment (or at least what Social Media Director Kurt Greenbaum deemed as the wrong comment) on the St. Louis Dispatch’s website on November 13. Personally, I thought the comment was kinda funny, but here is how this all started…

Greenbaum’s “Talk of the Day” blog asked what many of us with who are still in touch with our junior high minds would consider a loaded question, “What’s the craziest thing you have ever eaten? And did you like it?” One St. Louis guy, who reportedly was a school employee of some type, left the following comment on the site (which was deleted, but was reprinted on a site chronicling this debacle, KurtGreenbaumisaPussy.com):

“I have eaten many different animals (or at least parts of them), including rattlesnake, crocodile, alligator, iguana, turtle, and many different molluscs, arthropods, echinoids, and whatnot from sea or river. I have also eaten squirrel, bear, dog, and cat. So, I can say I have eaten pussy, and you can interpret or misinterpret it any way you want. Oh, and woof-woof, too.”

Greenbaum got an email alerting him to the comment’s existence, and deleted it. The commenter allegedly reposted it a bit later (maybe he thought it got swallowed by the beast that is the P-D’s website?), and that’s when Greenbaum got angry. And the interwebs does not like Kurt Greenbaum when he is angry (as we would all would soon learn). He decided to do a whois IP address search (which allows website owners to see the address that a user’s computer is located at when they leave comments on their site and other webbby none-such), and called the eater-of-domestic-pets’ employer. The employer did a little fancy-schamncy footwork and figured out exactly which computer in the building the comment came from and “SHAZAM!” Dude resigns and the internet spontaneously combusts. Then in a very classy move, Greenbaum wrote all about how he saved the web from it’s self, and how the dude lost his job over it all (dance on a guy’s recessioned, paycheckless grave why don’t ya?).

KurtGreenbaum.com was quickly bought up and redirected to point to KurtGreenbaumisaPussy.com to chronicle the mess, and the blogosphere started humming with the hateorade. Sure, workplaces all have their own internet usage policies, and the fact that the dude was a school employee stinks. But on the same token, what would the internet be without trolls and silly comments? Not the interwebs we know. The whole appeal about blogging is that people are free to speak their unabashed opinion, be it anonymously or all up in your screen. When you take the anonymity away the whole interactive media thing loses a lot of it’s flair and appeal. If you want to run a website, you have to take the good with the bad. And unless someone is dead, dying or bleeding then webmasters in their right minds, who actually understand the internet, don’t go screwing up commentors’ personal lives – they don’t have the time, the desire and, honestly, if they asked a question like that and got that response they would probably be more apt to realize that they left themselves wide open with that one.

On Friday, local CBS affiliate KMOV asked me what I thought about it, and also asked the Post Dispatch what the hell happened:

And yes, you can probably see up my nose if you look hard enough. The Post mentioned that they draw a line a profanity… Well, I alls I have to say is that their comments section isn’t exactly known as one of the classiest places to hang out on the web, and I had no idea that “pussy” was considered profanity (good thing this isn’t one of those cute cat blogs!). And really, when did that line mean anything more than deleting the comment?

Why this comment, and why go to the commentor’s employer? The webz may never know. In the meantime, feel free to say whatever you’d like in our comments – I won’t go all tattling on ya, but I might not approve it (*gasp, clutch, choke*).

Melody is the Managing Editor and resident Gadget Geek for Girls Guide. She is a freelance writer for blogs and such, and her primary focus is Girls Guide. You can email her at melody [at] girlsguidetothegalaxy [dot] com, and you can follow her on Twitter- @cosmosgirl.