Tom Miller has established his comments policy, and I quite like it. I have long since given up reading the comments on Iain Dale’s site because of the number of anonymous abusive commenters. I gather Guido’s site is the same, but I never actually go there so I can’t really say. It must be something about right-wing blogs that they attract to many anonymous cowardly and downright abusive people commenting on them. I’ve usually allowed any comments unless they are from Nazis or the tit from Prague. I tend to work on the principle that if people come here being abusive they can have both barrels back, but I think Tom’s notion of… this is my blog, and you only get to comment here if you play by the rules, has a lot to commend it.
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Like you I think I am pretty thick skinned. There is a fine line, sometimes, between use and abuse. I noticed on my forum that if abuse is not quickly dealt with it can soon descend into a free for all. And, the point of the post is missed.
It comes down to the quality of posts and comments rather quantity. I don’t think the likes of Dale and Staines understand this.
“It must be something about right-wing blogs that they attract to many anonymous cowardly and downright abusive people.”
It is indeed, they usually attract abuse from socialists and communists whose trade is abuse and hate. Words like racist, fascist, bigot, denier, little Englander, Nazi, etc are just standard language for these delightful people. Right-wing blogs are their target. Very few of them can put up a decent argument.
Also, I suspect right wing blogs attract more comment anyway, as there are usually more ideas on them!!
And how on earth do you tell that someone is a Nazi? Unless they give you their name, rank and serial number? What about communists, do you allow comments from them?
Totally agree with you Bob.A blog is a personal site and you visit it as a guest.
To be honest it is a waste of time reading the comments on Iain and Guido’s site.It seems to attract the lunatic element from both sides of the political spectrum.
I thought that blogging was about two way interaction,not abuse and negativity.
“It is indeed, they usually attract abuse from socialists and communists whose trade is abuse and hate”
As a matter of fact, most comments on Dale appear to be extremely supportive of most of the stuff he espouses, but most of Guido’s commentators are too base to waste time reading, with little to learn there.
I’d like to mention Comment is Free in the Guardian, and the vile comments aimed at those old lefties Toynbee, Freedland and Ashley. Any and every column they write has three days worth of often personal, vitriol aimed at them.
Very recently two articles inviting commentators to scrutinise the Tories, one by Freedland and the other by Oliver Letwin raised comparatively feeble and little interest or response. Astonishing no? Wouldn’t you just have expected yards of questions and queries from the ‘intellectuals’ there who usually have no problem expressing their opinions in the strongest terms – not really. The only conclusion one can draw is that CiF is completely infested with spiteful right wingers, with some deceitfully purporting to be on the left.
And btw most of the comment aimed at Kevin MacGuire is personal and takes some believing too. But to suggest that the abuse there is from the left is risible.
Are you going a bit “pre op ” on us Bobina ? You`ve changed .What next “this is my country, and you only get to comment here if you play by the rules.” … ? Shocking .
Newmania, we all have that. Some of it is governed by libel laws, some by attitudes towards decency, some because they don’t agree with their blog space being abused by nerds who really just want to run around showing off their willies to schoolgirls, but haven’t actually got the bottle to do it.
You’re always welcome, anyway. I may stop people being gratuitously abusive, but the just plain stupid will not be censored.
I try to stick with the ‘giving it back’ approach, but there are certain levels that I a not willing to descend beneath, and getting intensely personal or abusive is one of them.
At the end of the day, all rights remain reserved, basically.
Love the comment from Mrs.T.
Bob, what you do with your blog and which blogs and comments you read is entirely up to you.
My tuppence worth:
Ian Dale does moderate his readers’ comments and there are some absolute gems amongst them.
Although anything seems to go in Guido’s comments, he does expose parliamentarians of ALL politcal persuasions and you may well be missing out by not reading his blog, ie only today he has exposed two Tory MEPs well onboard the European Gravy train and milking it for all they can get.
I gave up on Dale altogether. Not only because of knuckledraggers like “verity”, but also because everything he posts is utter **** and he’s a self-publicising *********.
I’m more than capable of holding my own against these people, I just can’t see the point in talking to them when they bore and tire me.
I can get better discussion at other right-wing blogs. ConservativeHome isn’t so bad really, it’s got its wingnuts but at least they aren’t boring.
asquith, you’ve fallen foul of my new non-abusive comments policy. I can’t get all sanctimonious if people are abusive and then allow you to deliberately abuse comrade Dale.
Fair enough, it’s hard restraining myself where some people are concerned but it looks like I’ll have to…
Bob
I slightly disagree. I reckon it’s the people who comment on Guido and Dale who make me think their blogs are awful in that any blogs attracting appalling self satisfied rightwing twerps, braying rubbish asserrtions based on no knowledge whatsoever, must be rubbish. I know I’m biased but only against rightwing dickheads.
Bill, I don’t think we do disagree. I was saying the comments are boring, repetitive and abusive, not the blog sites.
I suspect it is something they will have learned to to live with if they are happy to attract that sort of client
Just out of interest, are you going to name some especially disagreeable “contributors”? I could, but I’m not going to, certainly not here.
No, I don’t think so asquith. In any event, being “disagreeable” is OK… in fact quite welcome… but being abusive isn’t.
I disagree with the notion of Iain Dale and Guido being unworthy and unreadable.
To suggest that they are neither informative or interesting is also nonsense.
They are actually very good at what they do and my view is that it is a fool who doesn’t see this.
I’ve tried to explain the phenomenon of the blogsphere to my Constituency and the rise of the right wing bloggers (take a bow Lord Ashcroft) but we have only just discovered the telephone.
Asquith is a Tory who we’ve expelled from the City of Stoke (the People’s Republic) and he has no right of redress.
By disagreeable I meant personally unpleasant. I hope I don’t fall into that category! Agree wholeheartdly that it’s good to speak to people with other points of view, hence my being here