I just got my first actual real life death threat in a comment on my oh-so-stupid-I-wish-I-hadn’t-written-it Fred Basset post.

It was a dumb post I wrote back when I was desperate for stuff to write about, and I regret writing it so poorly. While I stand by the basic sentiment - so I won’t delete it - it reads like it was written by a Youtube commenter and makes me cringe knowing that it’s cluttering up my site.

The worst part about it is the post accounts for about 3% of my search traffic and 3% of the comments I get. That doesn’t sound like much, but most of the other stuff I write doesn’t get nearly the same amount of interaction. And I still get comments on it now, about a 50/50 split of agreement and disagreement - it was highly controversial obviously.

And today I got another comment ending with the following death threat:

DO NOT mess with bassets again, or i will have to kill you. ruby

Of course, this chills me to my core, but I believe so strongly how bad Fred Basset is, that I will not be frightened into submission.

Sorry Ruby, I won’t be publishing your comments, nor that of the other person who left a comment. I just don’t care enough. I have other things I’ve written that are more important to me. Things about my life and family, or my ongoing sci-fi serial about Rex Havoc that’s at least as funny as Fred Basset.

What I’m trying to say is, I want to put Fred Basset to bed please. If you love him, that’s great. Have a great time! Why my opinion matters to you I cannot fathom. Just enjoy yourself.

And don’t threaten me.