Care to Comment?
I came across this interesting thought on Patrolmag.com (thanks to Rhett linking to it on FB):
As for comments, please refer to our statement here. We regret that the now-ubiquitous comment box has mostly failed as a means of productive discourse. Our content is carefully curated, and we demand a serious amount of thought and effort from our writers. It is unfair for them to face a public flogging at the hands of people who do not have to so much as identify themselves, and can undermine the authority and class of a piece in just a few inflammatory sentences. Commenting may have become a "right" in the Web 2.0 world, but its most shining accomplishment is to degrade everyone who produces and consumes information online.
It's a refreshing thought process - there is very definitely a culture of vitriolic commenting in many sectors of blogworld (not I note the the urbane but few visitors to this blog). I can't help but wonder whether the internet really is changing humanity or whether its just tapping into existing modes. Too deep for me to analyse.
One bit I liked from the extended rationale:
The internet would be a lot less barbaric place if more webmasters would stop mindlessly sticking comment boxes on every bit of content they post. (Seriously, who wants to read Mariah85747's thoughts on a Washington Post article?)
So have at it Mariah 85747!
2 comments:
I read that and liked it too. It's a "magazine" not a blog so I can understand their rationale.
I guess across a couple of constructive and good comments threads. But in general I think I agree with Patrol Mag.
In the article I linked to in Patrol there was a term: "self-definitional masturbation". I think it sums up 90% of the comments threads I read on Christian blogs.
Personal blogs like this one are a little different, and also I find the occasional blog such as Internet Monk's one where the discourse is a little better, which is probably why I visit those sites the most.
It is very interesting for me to read that article. Thank you for it. I like such topics and anything that is connected to them. I would like to read a bit more on that blog soon.
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