It has been a while since we wrote a blogging hints essay. One of the original purposes of this site was to provide usable hints for new bloggers.
Today's subject is about comments.
The bad news: There are some interesting people out there who will write some interesting, nay offensive stuff if you allow them to do so. This site seems to attract two kinds of comments and two kinds of commenters.
The first is the best kind, the folks who have interesting things to say and who say them in a thorough, thoughtful way. These writers are very desirable and make a blogger's job much easier. It makes for a more interesting blog if the folks who comment on your blog do not agree with your position, so long as they do so in an inoffensive way. You will find that their comments actually allow you to sharpen your argument and fix any holes you may have left. Treat them with respect.
The second kind of commenter is the intentionally offensive individual whose goal is to upset you and help you ruin your blog. You can spot these folks very quickly. They write very short comments and always sign their name with a pseudonym. They try to make it appear that more than one individual is making negative comments by using a different pseudonym each time. You can identify them simply by checking their IP address, if your software allows you to do that.
You can expect this latter set to be without much in the way of common decency or ethics. They will sometimes pretend to be friendly, and at other times to be unfriendly. They are trying to herd you into not saying what they don't like and if you publish their comment, to give the impression that you are doing something that you are not doing (attacking Republicans in our case).
If they don't like your blog, they are trying to discourage you from posting at all.
You must decide what you are willing to tolerate in the way of comments. When this blog began, we allowed all comers to comment. That continued until things got ugly. We now moderate comments, and that seems to work well. We could completely ban certain IP's from submitting even moderated comments, except that the hostile commenters provide a source of entertainment and sometimes become a foil for a good essay subject.
New bloggers, especially those with thin skins, should consider banning a commenter after the first attempt at an offensive comment.
Once you have a good collection of comments from a single IP, you can make some telling judgments about their politics and ethics. Left wing and fringe right commenters can be equally deceitful. We once published a left wing comment, looked at the published version and immediately unpublished it. The commenter had used her name as a link to an obnoxious piece of Democrat propaganda. The fact that her name was a link wasn't obvious when reading the approval box.
This blog would like to encourage Colorado Republicans from across the political spectrum to write blogs. Our theory is that Republicans will need an alternate means of communication if they are to counter the liberal MSM. We also think that moderates won't read conservative blogs and vice versa.
If you are a moderate Republican, your blogging presence is welcomed, at least in this corner. We wanted to forewarn you as to what you might expect and how to deal with it. Conservatives are a bit safer from these kinds of comments but are equally strongly encouraged to start blogs.
If, in 2008, there were 200 Colorado Republican blogs, across the spectrum, it wouldn't be too many. Blogging is hard work, and it probably won't happen.
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