With the leadership race in full swing and the American election winding down we've seen a lot swiping and over the top smears, much of it anonymous, some of it very personal, on Liberal blogs these past few days. Let me propose a solution, albeit an imperfect one for the months ahead. I propose that ALL Liberal blogs cease to alllow anonymous comments on their blogs. If someone wants to launch outlandish accusations/smears then I think they should do so under their own name or at least have to have a google/wordpress account to do so. Here I made that decision after an anonymous personal attack on a friend of mine was posted as a comment for a post I did this past summer. I also took the extra step of returning to moderating comments because of that. I am not suggesting anyone to take that extra step, but to instead at least try to minimize the possibilty of people hiding behind pseudonymns.
Yes I know people can still invent fake blogger accounts or wordpress ones, but think of this as being like child safety lids on Tylenol, sure the child may still bust it open, but we shouldn't make it so easy for them to do so.
Now I realize this may mean less comments on your blogs, but I happen to believe that we can't complain about anonymous smears of Liberals appearing in Jane Taber columns and then allow those anonymous smears on our blogs ourselves. If you write an interesting post, I'm sure you'll still get lots of comments.
But as the title states, this is just a modest proposal to improve the discourse around here just a little. If you personally disagree with it, or it might prove impractical depending on your blogging sofware, so be it. But it is my hope that at least a few more bloggers do go along. I fear that as the leadership race carries on, the anonymous comments will be flooding in otherwise.
Let's just do our part to keep it civil, and for those who choose to launch outlandish smears, then hopefully at least we will know who it is actually coming from.
So who will join the campaign for civility?
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8 comments:
danielle
The anon, not anon, debate really doesn't matter, if people just use their head and DELETE nonsense. I do that regularly on my blog, but I allow anon comments, because it allows a casual reader, maybe somebody who doesn't necessarily following blogs, to express themselves. It's not the "anon" that's the problem, many times I get insightful thoughts, it's the blog HOST that needs to set a standard.
Fair point Steve. I'm glad you use such discretion. I guess the other issue I have with anon's is that specifically within the context of a leadership race they can flood blogs with smears and conspiracy theories about whatever candidate they dislike and in fact it may be all the same person just acting like different people to create this false impression that tons of people are dead set against someone. You could verify if it's the same person though IP's I guess but they could also just switch computers. It sounds really pathetic that anyone would do that, but I don't underestimate the Blogging Tories or others' ability to waste their time in such a manner.
But ultimately you are right the responsibility lies with the host of the blog as to whether they would let "Candidate X would be the end of the Liberal party and I would tear up my membership if he/she won" or much more over the top smears on their blog from multiple anons or not. And of course the same goes for any personal attack that absolute common sense dictates should be deleted even if it comes from someone with a blogger account.
Fair point Steve. I'm glad you use such discretion. I guess the other issue I have with anon's is that specifically within the context of a leadership race they can flood blogs with smears and conspiracy theories about whatever candidate they dislike and in fact it may be all the same person just acting like different people to create this false impression that tons of people are dead set against someone. You could verify if it's the same person though IP's I guess but they could also just switch computers. It sounds really pathetic that anyone would do that, but I don't underestimate the Blogging Tories or others' ability to waste their time in such a manner.
But ultimately you are right the responsibility lies with the host of the blog as to whether they would let "Candidate X would be the end of the Liberal party and I would tear up my membership if he/she won" or much more over the top smears on their blog from multiple anons or not. I just happen to think that comments like that should only be able to come from someone with a name attached because otherwise it just sounds completely made up, anyone can say they are leaving the party behind an anon pseudonymn.
Though I think we can definitely agree that for any personal attack that absolute common sense dictates should be deleted even if it comes from someone with a blogger account.
Funny that as we discuss this I currently find myself unable to delete comments as normal. Maybe this is a temporary blogger issue, but is ironic given the circumstances. Hopefully things return to normal soon, but failing that I guess the redundant first comment of mine (which is missing the one line I included in the second) will remain for now.
Over at my blog, I've resolved to ensure that my blogs all talk about HOW specific candidates will be able to defeat Harper. I won't take potshots at what one candidate can't do, but of course, if that column is empty on their report card, people will need to ask questions (or answer them in my comments section). This principle works very well in the business world - and I've spent a lot of time there. We need to ensure we are constructive, creative, and open. I may contrast a couple of candidates, but be assured - at least initially - that I'll have plenty to say about all of them, all positive.
The maturity level of some Liberals shows when they resort to "dirty" tactics during leadership campaigns. What exactly do you have so vested in a leader that you would attack, name-call, and deride the very people you will be door-knocking and campaigning with? I worked on the Ignatieff campaign. I was critical when things didn't work well. But, the key was, I was always kind and considerate to fellow Liberals.
Having manners, and being a true statesman doesn't just apply to our leaders - it also applies to the rest of us. Who knows? Someday we may be those very people...
Constructive criticism is fair game, I just like to see people being willing to put their name behind such criticism. The most over the top criticisms though always seem to come from anon's though curiously...
Danielle,
Perhaps what we should start doing is having commenter IPs attached to comments. I'm not sure if blogger.com supports it, but most software should.
Me.
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