So farewell then, Rocco Forgione and his devilish entourage of mud-slinging reprobates. While I still enjoy Rocco’s cartoon violence, its frequency and quality have diminished considerably. What has also diminished considerably is his roster of friends. That’s his problem.

What is my problem, and should not be, is continued ad hominem attacks in his comments section, which amounts to an ever-strengthening case against the provision of comments on personal Weblogs. There’s too much of a capacity for outright hatred and vitriol, and one blog’s comment section can be and is used as a mechanism of attack against other publishers who, out of an abundance of caution, do not enable comments. Even if you’re a blogger with no enemies, you will be flooded with spam comments. If you enable comment moderation, you still have to read the comments, many of which can carry out their goal of personal abuse, belittlement, and disturbance through something as simple as a subject line that only you see.

Rocco merits ostracism not because of his boorishness; his oft-manifested racism (as distinct from his taste in blonds and redheads, like his inexplicably mismatched nice-guy boyfriend); his alleged vindictiveness in that arena of overwrought re-enacted childhood traumas, the rugby pitch; or because he is, at times, an arrogant twat. Rocco deserves shunning and opprobrium because, in the guise of naughtiness and mischief, he permits others to use his own Web site as a forum for ruthless, premeditated attacks.

In this respect, Rocco is more akin to trannies than he would like to admit.