I'm lucky to have some really thoughtful commenters on this blog. Unfortunately, there are also some much less thoughtful ones. Almost inevitably, conversations that begin with serious responses to the post wind up veering wildly off-track, with commenters insulting each other, me, or people who aren't here and don't even know they're being insulted.
The result is that, outside the commenters themselves, most people are dissuaded from even reading the threads; if they do, they come away with a negative opinion of all concerned. That's a disservice not just to them, but to those people who put time and effort into constructive posts, and then get drowned out by inanities.
This is, of course, a problem across this site. I don't have the time or the resources to do anything about that, but what I should be able to do is ensure a higher level of discourse on my own space. I'd like this to be somewhere that encourages intelligent discussion, and I'm going to do my best to promote that.
One option would be to move to a fully moderated system, in which all comments had to be approved before publication. I'd prefer to avoid that, though, because I'm not going to be monitoring them 24/7, and that would mean long waits to get them posted.
As a half-measure, for now, I'm just going to be much more vigilant about what's been posted, and a little more ruthless about deleting stuff that's offensive or just plain off-topic.
To be clear, criticism is more than welcome; I actually enjoy it, and any writer who doesn't shouldn't be in this business. What I'll be deleting as quickly as I find it is the following:
- Comments that personally insult other commenters, or me, as opposed to criticizing the substance of arguments
- Comments that don't address the topic of the post
- Comments that carry over feuds between commenters from other threads
- Multiple repeat comments by the same person
- Obvious party talking points
- Insults that are snuck into commenters by placing them in the name of commenter (as in "Harper is a big fat liar from Canada writes:")
My hope is that this will be like the NHL's crackdown on clutching and grabbing; annoying at first, with way too much officiating, but resulting in a better product once everyone knows what to expect.
And yes, I'm aware that I may have just indirectly compared myself to Gary Bettman. The "no insults" rule doesn't apply if you're insulting yourself (or, uh, Gary Bettman).