In the comments to his Friday HateWatch briefing, Lewy14 pointed to a very good piece at Jihad Watch about their comments section:
"...actually I didn't create this site so that people could vent at all, but to raise awareness precisely so that policy would be affected. The anti-jihad struggle, as I have also often repeated, is a struggle for the equality of dignity and rights of all people. Comments that are boorish, threatening, aggressive, etc., or tangled into knots answering some obvious provocateur, will only discourage thoughtful people who are actually in a position to influence policy from using this site as a resource."
Blog admins use different approaches in trying to realize their goals, from strong free speech orientations to a more club-like atmosphere of active gatekeepers. Whatever one's approach may be, however, a statement of vision and goals that includes one's aspirations for the site and the comments section is a worthwhile component of any blog.
Hear, Hear! So many of the comments sections on the Iraqi blogs, in particular, are swamped with trolls and political proseletizers. Maybe the air will clear after the election -- or maybe it will just get thicker.
A blog belongs to he/she who pays the cost of the bandwidth.
I''ve never understood those who don't understand this.
I think it's great to be courteous and have a statement of principles like the example blog.
I also think it's a good idea to speak softly and carry a big stick (AKA the delete key).
Absolutely. I can't tell you how many weblogs I've stopped reading because the comments section was hijacked by rabid partisans and bigoted creeps. Even worse is when the blogger, perhaps out of some desperation to be popular or please his/her imagined constituency, starts to sound like the worst of the commenters.
Brian D.-
Well said. My thoughts exactly.
I think that without rules, comment sections can become like that island on Lord of the Flies. Props to Joe for keeping it civil and lively in here.
I've also noticed a corollary: comments sections that get out of hand seem to have a corrosive effect on the blogger eventually. I'll not name examples here, but I can think of several blogs that I used to read, then noticed that the comments were really nasty and/or blindly partisan (but the blog entries were still well worth reading), then over the next months realized that the blog entries were starting to pick up the tone of the comments.
Yes. Really rabid language is corrosive and can taint the entire dialogue. That's one reason I'm speaking out against it, no matter from which side of the political divide it comes.
Thanks, Matt. And my deepest thanks to the bloggers at WoC for keeping this place civilized. This has become by far my favorite political blog.
Jihad watch has been blocked in India by Congress led Govt of India which recently colluded with Pakisthan saying Pak was also a victim of Terror this being said after even the World came to know that paksithan is the leader of State Sponsored Terrorism not only agaisnt India but also agaist the World
[ Incredibly long spammy dump of song lyrics and advertising deleted. Tom, if you want to make your views known here, feel free to post them in a way that contributes to the dialog we are trying to foster here.
--Marshal Nortius "Big Tuna" Maximus ]