Comments on: Drama vs. criticism

By: Steve Lawson

Steve Lawson — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 15:37:20 +0000

I’m getting a dozen spammy comments per day on this one post. Time to close comments.

By: lis.dom » in defense of the dinky library, among other things

lis.dom » in defense of the dinky library, among other things — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 04:28:46 +0000

[...] That said, though, in the spirit of honesty before politeness and of writing in my own blog instead of just commenting on other peoples’, here’s my little rant about one of last week’s memes, the suckiness of the physical library space. [...]

By: John Overholt

John Overholt — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 19:35:47 +0000

Staying out of no-win religious wars? That’s like 40% of all blog content! If we all did that the internet would be nothing but tumbleweeds and dust. :)

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 19:25:35 +0000

Yeah, Iris, I went for the trifecta on Rochelle’s post: I made a smartass comment, then wrote this post on my blog, then made another (slightly less smartass) comment on Tinfoil + Raccoon.

Eat snark? Eat snark and die!

By: Steve

Steve — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 19:17:48 +0000

You are very right, John. I didn't mean to say that I think comments are bad, or that substantive disagreement can't happen in the comments. Perhaps the problem I was writing about is too personal; it's really about the way I have written a few comments, not about comments in general What I mean to say is that I will sometimes write things that are more obnoxious in comments than I will here. For example, I was willing to say in the comments on the Tame the Web post The Shifted Librarian on those Pesky Cell Phones that I thought Jenny Levine had sunk to self-parody and schoolmarmish scolding, something I wouldn't post to this blog. That's the kind of thing I'm saying I won't do anymore. Another sort of resolution is to not get involved in discussions that I either really don't care that much about or that are no-win religious wars. So no more comments from me about "bad signs" or cell phones in libraries. They get me too worked up over things that aren't really all that important to me.

By: Iris

Iris — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 19:09:06 +0000

Here’s an idea: comment AND blog post. That’s the one-two punch of conversation building. I almost never follow lists and lists of trackbacks, but I do read comments. That way you can have your snark and eat it too… ewww ;)

By: John Overholt

John Overholt — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 18:46:07 +0000

Fan though I am of flaming snark, I’ll grant that substantive disagreement is usually an improvement. But I don’t at all follow your argument that you can’t acomplish that in a comment on another site. If you really want to label a behavior as cowardly (although I think it’s a vast exaggeration in either instance), it’s not being willing to say what you’re thinking to the author’s face, as it were.

Maybe it’s a distinction without a difference, but I can’t help feel that comments are what make the blogosphere (sorry) a sphere, in a way that trackbacks don’t quite.

/says the man with comments turned off on his blog