If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all..

In my daily trawl of all my favourite blogs, I always remember to keep an eye on Berry's Blogger Challenges on StrawberrySingh.com. This weeks Berry's challenge is to answer the question "What do you believe in?" and it's high time I joined in, so here goes:

I had a reasonably strict upbringing, in the "little girls should be seen and not heard" sense. Although that's something I've spent pretty much everyday since I left home disproving, there are some things about my upbringing that stick with me, that I believe in and ~try~ and live by.

My mother always said "If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all" and I believe that as a rule of thumb, to be true.

Don't get me wrong, there are days when I simply cannot bite my tongue, and I am sooo far from perfect. But, as a participant in one sort of online community or another for about the last 5/6 years I have observed and learned that it can be so easy to hide behind the anonymity that is a part of online communication, and let your sarcastic 'oneupmanship' side, takeover. I have always tried hard, not to be that person. It's too easy to attempt to massage your own ego by forcing knowledge, or sometimes just plain assumption upon others.

So, I believe that 'If you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all'.