Blog Comments Destroy the Internet

Original author: Jay Garmon
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Joel on Software (Joel on Software) found the root of all the problems on the Internet : anonymous blog comments.

Before we embark on a discussion full of disgust, what an idiot this Joel is (my reasoning will be soft, you'll see), let's make it clear: Joel is against anonymity, not privacy. Confidentiality is the right to browse sites and download so that no one will know what you are doing without good reason. Anonymity is the right to participate without being tied to your real identity.

In the eyes of Joel (and Dave Winer, whom he quotes), anonymity is destructive. So much so that they both argue that blogs should not allow comments. “You have no right to post your thoughts in addition to strangers. This is not freedom of expression, this is a violation of their freedom of expression. ”

In my opinion, this is where the argument went off the rails.

Now, like Joel, I subscribe to John Gabriel's Greater Internet # @ &% wad Theory, which identifies the problem as Normal + Anonymity + Audience = Idiocy. It is believed that this is what leads to many (but by no means all) flame wars and antisocial behavior on the Web can be stifled in its infancy if people use their real names forcibly. Forcing people to be responsible for their actions, this is an unreal art - look at eBay - you cannot cure a real sociopath who just wants to make other people's lives miserable. This means that if you make people admit what they say to their people, then most likely they will see what they say.



Let's leave aside the fact that I do not know a single blog reader who cannot mentally separate a blog post from its comments. Let's also assume that Joel and Wiener are not thin-skinned egoists who cannot see dissent among their readers.

Okay, Joel, you don't like anonymity? Excellent. But there is a huge gap between the lack of anonymous comments and the absence of comments at all. It's like a baby coming out of a bathtub and dripping water onto the floor. By requiring counter arguments to be only on another unrelated blog (this is exactly what I'm doing here) - you won’t get a dialogue. This is the same as the two politicians use ads and counter-ads on television, instead of having a direct debate. One is more intelligent and valuable than the other, and, I think, it is quite obvious that there is something.

Permission to comment on your blog is like inviting people to your home - it’s a bit overkill, even if everything is normal. If someone does not respect decency, you can throw him out of the house. We call it moderation, and it is as old as the Internet itself. If this is too troublesome for you, then you can simply not invite people, but do not expose it as a kind of superior morality or highly intellectual decision. Sitting alone in your room and shouting messages out the window is not the best solution to invite someone interesting to the conversation. Just giving up and disappointing in the comments is the easiest way out, but certainly not the best one.

Here's the thought, why don’t you have to force people to register before they can comment? There is a whole range of restrictions in interaction, and the more you complicate the posting, the more the poster will appreciate its username and do everything in order not to prevent its loss.

As an alternative to banning comments in general, author John Scalzi restricts the forum to posting on his blog two days a month . and he personally checks each poster. Other sites put comments in pre-moderation, and do not allow them to appear on the site until human eyes check them. Others require email verification, verifying that your address is real. And almost everyone cleans up trolls and spam bots as needed.

(Restrictions also hinder interaction, so there is a line between hindering rogues and restraining normal commentators who just don't want to go through a few stupid posting steps.)

Of course, comments require care, but it is also an effective way to engage the audience and really create interactivity, as opposed to dying static content on your monitor. Maintaining a normal Website is much more complicated than just logging into Blogger and breaking the keyboard. Success requires attention, as do trolls. This is the price we pay for doing business. Instead of turning off comments, it’s more rational to find a way to deal with them.

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