Every once in a while, when I’m needing a little pick-me-up, I catch up on Allen Stone YouTube comments. These are waters for infrequent toe dipping, but sometimes I can’t help myself.

For the most part, the Al Stone online world’s pretty chill, especially when it comes to yours truly. “I didn’t know John Mayer played guitar for Allen,” “Dude looks like John Mayer,” and “check out the JM wannabe” feature prominently, and I have to concede their accuracy, or at least being more flattering than “check out Steve Buscemi on guitar.”

Some comments are mean, and more than a few inspiringly bizarre, but that’s kinda what you’d expect, given the context.

However, what surprised me today was reading the comments on Fred Wilson’s excellent Venture Capital newsletter, which I subscribe to and recommend, only to find the same sexually suggestive GIFs and lazily caustic conspiracy theory nonsense.

It is, I suppose, encouraging that someone finds a boomerang of a dog humping another dog cogent analysis of both their current portfolio and my guitar solos. That feels right to me, for some reason.

What’s discouraging is realizing nowhere’s safe from trolls, and everything we put out there’s fair game for flat earth nutsos, or at least someone who thinks they can do the thing better.

If you’ve been receiving particularly vitriolic online bullshit lately, consider following Patton Oswalt’s example.