Commenting on comments
Mark Bernstein has been commenting on comments on blogs (if that isnât too recursive for you). He wrote:
Comments donât belong in weblogs.
I donât agree, at least in a global way. First, I think that people are entitled to make whatever they want of their own weblogâitâs their own space. Some people see their weblog as a kind of considered thinking space which they want to control quite tightly. Others welcome the interesting chaos that allowing commenting can provide. Iâm definitely of the latter opinion.
Perhaps Iâve just been luckyâapart from comment spam and the odd childish contribution like âu smellâ1, which I treat with the contempt and indifference they deserve, people who comment here mostly provide funny, informative and interesting contributions, and that adds greatly to this site. I suppose that if I ran a very political or controversial site, I might have more of a problem with trolls, but I still donât think that commenting per se is badâit all depends on how well-behaved your audience is.
1 Actual comment, now deleted.
1
When I first set up my Blog, I didnât realise that Blogger didnât provide Comments functionality. The someone e-mailed me to say that a blog without Comments was just a website, so I was stung into investigating how to provide the facility.
P.S. I really liked your âoldâ blog layout, so will be very interested to see how this one is received.----- I like having comments in my blog, but Markâs words rung true to me after a recent controversy involving my blog, my job, my liberal rants, and an opinion piece about me in the Wall Street Journal (I mentioned this when I wrote about Markâs entry - ahh, nothing like shameless self-promotion!). A swarm of nasty conservatives descended upon my blog, leaving nasty comments and sending me vicious hate mail, some of which had me at the local police station filing charges. I kept the comments section up, but now I delete the nasty comments (which I still get on occasion).
By and large, I agree with your idea that the comments lend something to the site, even ones that disagree with me (but which do so without calling me âbobby boyâ or âfaggotâ or âboobâ â all things Iâve been called in my own comments sections). Iâve just decided since then that I wonât brook the idiocy on my own page, and delete that which I find offensive or objectionable.
sorry to have ranted here â got going and couldnât stop! ; )
by bob @ 14/04/2004 12:04 pm • Permalink •
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Mr. D.: I donât think that comments necessarily define a blog, but they can be fun/useful. People generally seem to like the new design (at least, thatâs what they say
).
bob: Eeek, you had some bad experiences, there, didnât you? Iâm sorry to hear that. I have been lucky with comments it seems. But you have exactly the right attitudeâjust delete the idiotic/offensive ones. And feel free to rantâI think itâs warranted in your case!
by bsag @ 14/04/2004 5:04 pm • Permalink •
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u donât smell.
by Paul @ 14/04/2004 9:05 pm • Permalink •
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Paul: Thank you
by bsag @ 15/04/2004 5:05 pm • Permalink •
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