Around these here parts, we often have an entertaining comment section. It's got it all: pure insult, straw man arguments, ad hominem arguments, nonsense, insight, comedy, unintentional comedy, heck, even poetry sometimes.
Personally, I see the whole thing as mostly necessary and mostly harmless, even though a steady diet of insult gets as boring as saltless oatmeal every day. (On the good side, the quality of insult sometimes picks up). Both recently and a few weeks back, however, we've had pleas for the deletion of comments. You'll find in our terms and conditions for commenting that the Advocate has the right to edit or delete anything posted, yet nothing has been deleted on this blog, at least not by me. Even though some comments have probably crossed the lines you'll find spelled out in the terms and conditions.
This raises interesting questions about how comments should be handled here, some of which are under consideration as we speak (the comment section will probably see some changes in the modus operandi soon).
What would people say, I wonder, if we wrote this?:
Per our FAQ's:
Note to Prospective Conservative Trolls: The Advocate does not tolerate conservative trolls. If your sole purpose is to join this site in order
to disrupt the flow of constructive dialogue against conservatism,
you will find your time here very short. You can and will be banned
for being a conservative. If you wish to debate the virtues of
conservatism (as though there were such a thing), there are many
other sites on the web who will tolerate you. The Advocate is not one of
those sites.The Advocate reserves the right to ban anyone for any reason we feel necessary to ensure the well being of the site and
our members.When they show up – ignore them, report them and we will ban them.
Thank you all for your patriotism and support!
The Advocate
Don't worry–we ain't posting that for real.
That message (in slightly different form) comes from the case that's currently unfolding with the Tea Partiers. Seems someone posted as "Rachel Maddow," and the Tea Partiers proudly claim to have deleted the poster within 7 minutes of sign-up (she says it wasn't her, but just an attempt to stir up publicity using her name).
From what purports to be the email about liberal commenters (via TPM):
Per our FAQ's:
Note to Prospective Liberal Trolls: TPN does not tolerate liberal trolls. If your sole purpose is to join this site in order
to disrupt the flow of constructive dialogue against liberalism,
you will find your time here very short. You can and will be banned
for being a liberal. If you wish to debate the virtues of
liberalism (as though there were such a thing), there are many
other sites on the web who will tolerate you. TPN is not one of
those sites.Tea Party Nation reserves the right to ban anyone for any reason we feel necessary to ensure the well being of the site and
our members.When they show up – ignore them, report them and we will ban them.
Thank you all for your patriotism and support!
Tea Party Nation
Is that kind of approach reasonable? I'm sure it's legal, and there's probably a liberal site out there that does the same (I don't know of any, but there probably is, all the same–I'd be interested to find out).
This strikes me as a stout illustration of the mindset of the folks in question, and wouldn't reflect well on anyone, no matter their political persuasion.
I'll just leave it at that, and see if anyone else has a thought. Or, hey!–maybe a good insult…
UPDATE: See what I mean?
ADDITIONAL:
Employing the Leidenfrost Effect can change an awful lot about how you do things.
If you like to cook (and I do), it also works miracles when you use stainless steel cookware.
EXTRA ADDITIONAL:
Glad I asked. Well, sort of.
My point is explicitly stated in a single sentence above. Yet look at the many attempts below to return instead to the regularly scheduled Itchy and Scratchy Show. Oh well!
Changes are in the works for our comments, and I hope sooner than later. It's my fond hope that those changes will foster interesting back and forth and reduce reductive word-mangling.
Thanks all for your input.
