Dishing It Out, But Not Taking It

You know the old saying, "he can dish it out, but he can't take it".

That was my first thought about traditional media's efforts in the blog world when I read David Carr's piece in the New York Times today on blog comment problems at the Washington Post and the LA Times.

Blogs are conversations and when they are on a topic that people care a lot about, like politics or sports (and sometimes technology), they can get pretty mean spirited.

I had to start approving my comments yesterday because of the wave of comment spam I've been hit with.  But I can assure you of this.  I will approve every comment that a real person (not a spam bot) posts on my blog as long as it does not contain pornography or hate speech.  If someone calls me an idiot, I will approve it (and may agree with them at times). 

I believe in open and free speech and blogs are best when they are open for free speech.  People can parse through what is mean, hurtful, and wrong and what is thoughtful and intelligent.  But let them do that on their own and don't try to do it for them.

And have thick enough skin to let people say whatever they want in your comments section.

Or don't have one.

Comments

[Mathew Ingram]

Hear, hear. I agree completely -- and the newspaper where I work, the Globe and Mail, has the same philosophy. Provided a comment doesn't libel someone or use profanities, it gets posted. Period. You can't say you want a dialogue and then back away when one actually starts. If the WaPo had comments that broke the rules, then they should have deleted them -- but closing down comments altogether definitely sends the wrong message.

[Aaron Pastor]

I feel for you, mostly because this pre-editing is a waste of your time, but also because it forces the role of "censor" upon you before anyone's words enter the public domain. I understand why you say you'll post comments if someone calls you an idiot (which you're not), but if someone writes in only to say "Hey Fred, You're an idiot and your music choices suck" you'll have to say to yourself, Does this really add value to my blog to post this? It's potentially a slippery slope.

Best of luck with the pre-approval process.

[jackson]

I think you'll find people appreciate your attitude, I certainly do.

[Gary W. Longsine]

Idiot!

(Just testing.)

/gary