Thursday, February 28, 2008

Be Nice... Or Go to Hell

There's an interesting commentary on the web site of the Guardian newspaper today about maintaining some sense of proportion and decency in on-line forums.

In "How do you deal with the trolls and idiots on comment boards?", Andrew Brown starts by quoting Keith Richards (Johnny Depp's pirate Dad for you youngsters) and goes on to suggest that the model that is starting to develop around the web calls for a bit of slack, some trust, but also a firm hand when needed:
All of this requires unending effort. It is like gardening, a constant watch against pests and the bindweed of organised stupidity.
Words of wisdom that the News Journal may want to heed in managing their on-line comments. They say they don't moderate discussion forums about their articles, but that message is most often seen in noting deleted rudeness. They should probably bite the bullet and make that a full-time job for someone.

I get a few nasty comments here from time to time. Most I can ignore. A few have to be removed. It's part of the deal.

Wondering about that "go to hell" above? Mr. Brown points to the Christian site Ship of Fools, which maintains a section of its forums called Hell -- "the refuge of the irascible, the contentious and the just plain pissed off."

So if you don't like it here... you know....

1 comment:

the cajun said...

Mike, I can't imagine anyone being rude or nasty in commenting on any of your posts.

That said, personal attacks are more the norm than exception these days if you don't agree with someone's personal philosophy or political stand. As in you're a terrorist lover, or ______insert the accusation here.
Unfortunately, I fear it will get worse before it gets better. The wingnuts are none too happy about their candidates and things will get ugly, and of course the media will have their own brand of fun covering whatever tripe floats to the top, instead of covering the real issues.
I hope that ends with a new person in the WH.

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