Blog: Internet reveals dark side in row over Shrewsbury hotel
The internet. What a wonderful thing. Facebook allows us to stay in touch with friends who've moved away (as well as people we were in school with that we never really liked and who's opinions on everything from race to football make us want to punch them in the face).
Twitter allows us to tell the world what we had for dinner and find inventive new ways of abbreviating words to we don't go over 140 characters (it has also taught us how to turn punctuation marks into facial expressions).
We can do everything on the net. Watch films. Order food. Book a holiday. Book a table for a romantic meal out. What's more, we can look at what other people thought of our choice of film/resort/restaurant and use that to inform our decision over whether we've made the right choice. Marvellous.
But like everything, the internet has a dark side, which is now manifesting itself in the buzz-word of the minute, the 'troll'. A few years back it was 'boy-racers'. Then 'chavs'. Now it's trolls.
Unlike the trolls of my childhood, these ones don't live under bridges feeding on unsuspecting billy goats. No, you are more likely to find these trolls living with mummy and feeding on pot noodles.
They target not goats, but individuals (often celebrities) saying things on social networking sites that they wouldn't dream of saying in the real-world for fear of having their weaselly faces punched in.
One victim of these bedroom-dwelling cowards is Mike Avery who runs Cromwells in Shrewsbury. Someone has decided they can make quick buck by posting a host of damaging reviews and then asking for money to take them down. What a lowlife. Clearly someone who can't be bothered to go out and earn their money like Mr Avery and his staff do.
Fortunately, as with most of these ugly trolls, this tactic seems to have backfired and Cromwells locals have rallied around - as have people who have never eaten there before but have decided to give it a go just to prove the troll wrong.
This news warms my heart. The downside of the internet is it allows nameless, faceless morons to spout their idiotic opinions largely without fear of censor or censure.
But for all the cowards using the internet as the new form of prank-call it seems there are plenty of people who are prepared to put their head above the parapet and say: 'No. We will not let your anonymous bullying win'.
People are taking a stand. It is time for the company's running these sites to do the same. They must police them better. The internet needs to tell these anonymous people: 'If you have something to say - say it to my (cyber) face'.
Dave Burrows
