Do it in your own backyard
Wed Jul 07 20:07:50 BST 2004 Permalink
I thought it would be useful for me to jot down some of my thoughts
about dropping comments & trackback while I can still remember
them. I used to think that comments & trackbacks as they
exist in todays
weblogs were a good idea. Mark's keynote at BlogTalk 2.0 and our subsequent conversations have converted me to his way of thinking.
Here is my best anology (so far) for understanding the situation as it is today:
Imagine that you really don't like me. One evening you get mad at me and drive over to my house where you daub the message "Matt Mower is a total asshole" in bright yellow paint on my walls for everyone to see.
The next day I start in horror on seeing this and spend the morning cleaning it off. You may not have signed your work which is lucky for you because I spend the afternoon driving round town with my paintball gun looking to get even. After you've done this a few times I get the message and protect my walls so that nobody can write on them.
But you're not done yet. Since you can't deface my walls any more you go around the neighbourhood painting your message on other peoples walls whether they agree with your message or not. There's not much I can do about it, I probably can't even help them scrub their own walls. The neighbourhood becomes divided over the issue and heated and pointless arguments break out all around.
Note that you haven't daubed your own walls with your message of hate. I think it would be very different if that was what you had to do. I think the inevitable consequence of that would be that you would have to learn to be more moderate or people would stop coming by.
Our comments form part of the overall picture of what sort of person we seem to be. But our comments are dispersed over the many sites we visit. One here, one there, dotted about. Even though they may bear our name the association is made weaker by their not being collected under it and taken together.
If all our comments appeared in one place (our blog) we couldn't so easily escape from them. They would take their place as part of our whole online persona. Anyone whose blog consisted entirely of vitriol and hatred would probably end up ostrasized. But it would be our choice.
Note that I'm not talking about restricting free speech. If people wanted to go visit such sites and read what was said there, that's fine. Even if it's about me. If people think something is fair comment, they can quote it just like always. But the point is that it's in their back yard, not in mine (nor spread - unwittingly - around the neighbourhood) and that they have to take action to do so. Unfair and unsupported comment will stay where it belongs, hung around the neck of it's author.
Here is my best anology (so far) for understanding the situation as it is today:
Imagine that you really don't like me. One evening you get mad at me and drive over to my house where you daub the message "Matt Mower is a total asshole" in bright yellow paint on my walls for everyone to see.
The next day I start in horror on seeing this and spend the morning cleaning it off. You may not have signed your work which is lucky for you because I spend the afternoon driving round town with my paintball gun looking to get even. After you've done this a few times I get the message and protect my walls so that nobody can write on them.
But you're not done yet. Since you can't deface my walls any more you go around the neighbourhood painting your message on other peoples walls whether they agree with your message or not. There's not much I can do about it, I probably can't even help them scrub their own walls. The neighbourhood becomes divided over the issue and heated and pointless arguments break out all around.
Note that you haven't daubed your own walls with your message of hate. I think it would be very different if that was what you had to do. I think the inevitable consequence of that would be that you would have to learn to be more moderate or people would stop coming by.
Our comments form part of the overall picture of what sort of person we seem to be. But our comments are dispersed over the many sites we visit. One here, one there, dotted about. Even though they may bear our name the association is made weaker by their not being collected under it and taken together.
If all our comments appeared in one place (our blog) we couldn't so easily escape from them. They would take their place as part of our whole online persona. Anyone whose blog consisted entirely of vitriol and hatred would probably end up ostrasized. But it would be our choice.
Note that I'm not talking about restricting free speech. If people wanted to go visit such sites and read what was said there, that's fine. Even if it's about me. If people think something is fair comment, they can quote it just like always. But the point is that it's in their back yard, not in mine (nor spread - unwittingly - around the neighbourhood) and that they have to take action to do so. Unfair and unsupported comment will stay where it belongs, hung around the neck of it's author.