I came across these two entries in my blog roll this morning, and I thought they were worthy of discussion here:

Being Jesus

and

Online Bigotry

These two entries are related, due to the differing viewpoints they have on the allowance of comments (or certain types of comments) on blog or site entries. The Being Jesus entry by Chartreuse refers to an entry on TechCrunch about bloggers and blogging networks raising money.  As with Chartreuse, I also found Michael Arrington’s thinking on this issue to be rather bizarre.   It could be because I don’t blog to make money.  But that’s beside the point.   However, Chartreuse also argues that, in the zeal to for high-level bloggers and blogging networks to make money, obtain capital, and provide a political voice to the blogosphere, the participation of the readers is now being left out of the equation.  Now, all of a sudden, there’s a Blog War, and the people who seem to be losing are the ones to read said blogs and comment on them in the comments section.

His whole thing, from what I understand, is that it’s the readers, stupid!  Which is a great argument.  However, as with that image debacle he had on his blog many moons ago (I still stand by my arguments made on that btw; once you unleash it on the internet, unless you can set up your html to prevent linking; it’s there for the taking - but that’s a discussion for another day), he’s arguing that content needs to be free to be traversed, discussed, et. al.  The more the content is allowed via commentary, the larger the audience will grow.

Which is all fine and good if your blogs preach to take any and all comers.  Which means occasionally hosting hurtful and spiteful comments, while your blog entries profess to be anything but.

You all remember what happened to Kathy Sierra, right?  Noone, but NOONE, should have to have been driven off the internet the way that she was.

This is why I had to start monitoring my comments.   I don’t like doing it.  And I think aspects of my blog’s supposed popularity has suffered as a result of it.   I don’t get a lot of comments on my blog anyway, so in the grander scheme of things, it’s not that big a deal. 

However, there were a couple of times, particularly when I was posting about the Jena 6 and showed support for the guy who put together the fake airline ticket, where I came across some angry assumptions about me, my character, my political affiliation, even my race, from doofuses in the the digital nether regions who’d rather call me names than provide a reasoned debate.

And you know what?  Every once in a while, I’ll post a strong opinion, I’ll even post a viewpoint that may be unpopular with many.  But I will not, will NOT tolerate any disrespect from anyone in MY house. 

And I think that’s the problem these days.  Too many blogs, especially high level blogs, in the interest of maintaining eye traffic, are not monitoring their comment content.  The Fox News site is a great example of this, allowing some racist rhetoric directed toward Barack Obama to sit in the comments section of their blogs.    The Huffington Post was also guilty of allowing disrespectful, hateful comments toward Nancy Reagan to be posted on THEIR site, before they finally got wise, cleaned up their act, and closed the post to any further commenting.

Granted, I’m not a fan of Nancy either, but geez! Show some respect!

It’s YOUR house, people!  Why are you letting some dogs shit all over your carpet?!?!?!?!?!

Putting together a blog is not rocket science.   Hell, if a BOT can do it, surely anyone can.  So, of course, there’s a lot of racist, sexist, Neanderthal rantings all over the blogosphere.  Personally, I’m okay with that.  Free country, freedom of speech, all that.  Since I don’t like them, I don’t go to them.  I don’t see them.  I’ve filtered them out of my personal online existence.

It’s when they decide to come to ME is when the trouble starts.   And Angry Aussie gets a lot of that, unfortunately, on his YouTube channel.

This political video really brought out the haters (both American AND Middle Eastern), after it won a YouTube award.

YouTube - Stop the Clash of Civilizations

Here’s the thing, folks.  These Neanderthals can never be stopped.  They can never be disposed of.  They can never be eliminated. 

They can, however, be controlled.

Disallow them from commenting on your work, and they will go elsewhere.  And if more folks prevent them from spewing on their blogs, they will eventually have no where to go and will go skulking back into the digital hellholes from which they came, sniffing and whining in their little websites like the puss-drenched pussy-puppies they are.

That is all…