If you create free stuff for people, know people will insult you

For years I've shared educational content for free online. Even when I was a teenager I created tiny tutorials on obscure forums to help out strangers that I never met face to face.

Getting insulted for helping is weird

Strangely I feel these last years one thing has changed, people are a lot more grumpy, agressive and outraged.

For example this week I got an email from someone who insulted me because they felt in some way I was scamming them by offering them a free Notion Template. Sure that person had to register to get that template, but it was totally free. They have to choose if they want to get the newsletter, that doesn't happen automatically. And they can even delete their account right after getting their free thing.

It's so strange to me that someone would go as far as insulting you personnally about your life choice when they chose to do you something.

Trying to be empathic, I understand that everyone has difficult days and frustrations. What I have a really hard time to process is why you would give back that anger and frustration to someone who tried to help?

This isn't the first time that someone gets angry with a very agressive tone about some free content that I provide.

The things that I offer are just "propositions", I'm not forcing anybody to get these things.

A thing to know

So all of this to say what was in the title of this article: if you create free educational content for people, just get ready to be insulted.

I think it's an important warning to give so that if you want to be someone who's generous and shares what they learned be ready that people get pissed at you.

Why does this happen now and not before?

Maybe something has changed in the internet in the last years, it's a bit sad, but it's like this.

Or maybe it's that until now I hadn't as many people discovering the free educational content that I create. And in a group large enough, there will always be someone who had a very hard day and lashes his anger to the wrong person. Maybe it's just a matter of statistics?

My decision

A decision that I'm taking is to not be sad, blocked, frustrated by people who insult me. I'll continue to try to be a gentlemen in my responses while always keeping the door open for a 1:1 live conversation if people really want to share something constructive. But as long as people don't want to have a real conversation I won't change the educational content I create. I'll continue to create free content for the silent mass of people who are silently thankful and won't get sad, demotivated by the angry insulting few who had a bad day which has nothing to do with my work.

What can you do about it?

If you're wondering, what can I do about this? It's pretty simple:

• Remember there is a human on the other side: don't insult people you disagree with, don't insult or get angry with people who try to serve you (like a person working on a hotline).

• Share some appreciation to counter the insults: I believe the silent mass is a mass of people who are happy, appreciative and thankful. So to counter the few people who are insulting and agressive, just voice out an appreciation. It helps to get a lovely thank you note after you've been insulted.