Guardians of the Galaxy director urges film fans to be kinder online

Guardians Of The Galaxy director James Gunn has urged Marvel fans to be kinder to one another on social media after fellow filmmaker Joss Whedon deleted his Twitter account amid reports he's upset with the harsh online criticism aimed at him over The Avengers sequel.

It's still not clear why Whedon shut down his Twitter page on Monday (04May15), but many believe he grew tired of the vile comments written by anonymous trolls.

And Gunn clearly thinks it's time to dial back the nastiness - in a lengthy Facebook.com post on Tuesday (05May15), the director wrote, "My plea to all of you... is that we all try to be a little kinder, on the Internet and elsewhere. And, honestly, that includes being kind to the people who are tweeting this nonsense.

"I don't believe you can tweet about wanting to find a movie director and 'curbstomp' him and be a happy person. That person's statement might make you a little angry - that makes me angry too. But thank God the circumstances of my life and your life didn't lead us to being the person that has the need to anonymously tweet that to someone on the Internet."

He added, "I don't think the way to affect change is through rage. That is just going to increase whatever divide you're experiencing in the first place. I believe that there are a handful of truly evil, awful human beings out there. But the majority of us on all sides of an issue think we're doing the right thing and are doing the best we can. If we assume that of each other, it makes life a lot easier."