With Pops out of commission and all (oh yeah, by the way he's fine and not dead, and I was supposed to mention that about 3 days ago), I've been perusing other blogs more frequently the past week or so. It is amazing to me how much even a slight increase in readership seems to bring down the general level of comment quality. You all are of course lovely no matter where you post, but the madness on other sites is astounding.
It's easy to get caught up in a belief that generally humans are rational- in small groups we can be. But broaden that group a bit and... yikes. I see the same thing when reading the tweet replies to any national story and/or "blue checkmark" tweet. It doesn't appear to be a right/left thing*, just a people thing.
So, kudos to you all. This is a very pleasant community (though I do miss Copithorne's wild ramblings from years ago), and it's great to be part of it.
*I have some theories on what the temptations are for each side in these sort of things, but it's only half-baked, so I'll let it sit a bit more.
I'd say it's a combination of getting more outliers and people being less invested in forming community bonds as the volume of commenters increases.
ReplyDeleteFolks like Z and Copi are interesting. They certainly seem to derive some enjoyment from peeing in the pool as it were.
BTW - there are some troll droppings in the comments a couple posts before this one.
Thanks for the tip. I deleted two of three. Now, back to Face Down In A Cake
ReplyDelete"Face Down In A Cake"... may your icing be laced with a good cognac.
ReplyDeleteBlogs comments, to remain interesting, have to be moderated. Sad, but true. I identify a really good blog by how interesting the comments are.
ReplyDeleteAre they honest? Even if they disagree, are they honest? Are they at the right level of discourse for the topic? A sports blog is very different from a science or religion blog. Do they denigrate other commenters?
Some people need to be shut down, but it usually ends up being the blog owner, not other commenters who do that best.
@ Tom Bridgeland. I learned that by getting it wrong years ago. I let something go on for over a hundred comments because my usual audience was answering the difficult intruder quite handily, and I thought that would be enough. Very libertarian, very 1st Amendment, very New Hampshire, don't you know? I had not reckoned with the thorough imperviousness of the arguer, who would grant not an inch even with his argument in ruins. In the end, I put friends through an unnecessary amount of irritation before I finally just called a halt to it all.
ReplyDeleteTerri, an excellent commenter who did not always agree with the me or the general tenor of the others, gradually faded out of commenting altogether within the next few months. I always felt that was part of it, and it was too bad.