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Josh writes...

Could you be more polite? I admire you, but every answer that you give to someone, you clearly seems irritated... we are fans.... just that.. we like what you do... by the way congratulations... i loved the first and second season from SSM.. maybe a third in the next three months?

Greg responds...

Okay, let me be frank. I find your post irritating. I do. I find a LOT of posts irritating. I try to be civil AND polite, but I also try to be honest, and I won't deny that sometimes my irritation is palpable. And frankly, though this isn't per se my intent, I'm okay with that.

And, yes, I get that people who post here tend to be fans, but there are certain categories of posts that do get on my nerves. These include (but are not limited to):

1. People asking questions that I've already answered ad nauseum, because they are too lazy to check the archives -- but feel I'm supposed to just put up with it, as if somehow I'm supposed to be okay with the fact that they're wasting my time even as they refuse to spend any of theirs.

2. People who seem to be asking me to confirm that me or my team screwed up in some way. (Especially when the real story is that their tastes and ours simply don't coincide.) I'm fine with someone who says, "That's not to my tastes." [For example, the previous poster wrote that she doesn't like it when characters break the fourth wall and address the audience directly. Personally, I think it's fun. But I have no problem with her having different tastes than I do. She wasn't telling me it was a mistake. Just that she didn't like it. Which, of course, is her 100% prerogative and just fine.] When someone instead says (even a more polite version of), "Admit it, Greg, that sucked," I do find it annoying. [I'm supposed to change MY tastes to match theirs? I don't think so.]

3. People who state something as fact that is either (a) dead wrong or (b) really just their opinion. Even if I AGREE with them, I find this approach grating on principle.

So yeah, sometimes answering questions here grinds on me. It does. THAT is a fact. But I keep at it, because I value the fans and want to at least try to give something back in some small way. If my means of doing it isn't to your liking... don't read it. That's not defiance. It's just common sense. But telling me to be more polite makes me want to tell you to be less presumptuous. And how does that make you feel? (My guess is, it makes you feel about how I feel right now. Irritated.)

Meanwhile, thanks for your kind words about Spider-Man. Of course, there's no way you'll see a new season in the next three months, or even in the next eight. But here's hoping that sometime in the next year...

Response recorded on December 17, 2009