Ann Althouse is starting something new.
I don’t generally get enough that this would be a problem for me, and if I did, I don’t think I’d have the time. But it could be an interesting site improvement for her, if she does.
5 thoughts on “Curating Comments”
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This explains her voting history.
If the goal is to promote comments she likes, there are many ways to do so without censoring all the other comments.
I’d much prefer an educated class with the reasoning skills to adhere to principles that are a little more complicated than an approach that thinks if the prices are too high, just set the price. When people no longer view freedom of speech as an American cultural ideal, then it isn’t surprising that we see strong support for excommunication from financial services, deplatforming, and censorship by government and companies.
Althouse is late to the game here. Does she even realize?
She might find that the readership drops off, that there aren’t as many people she thinks who will compete for her approval, or that free thinking people simply refuse to be silenced and use an alternate commenting system beyond her control. (People are already using dissenter on her site.)
She might find that the readership drops off, that there aren’t as many people she thinks who will compete for her approval, or that free thinking people simply refuse to be silenced and use an alternate commenting system beyond her control. (People are already using dissenter on her site.)
Or it might increase, as some of the worst offenders get deplatformed. It’s an experiment.
In Althouse’s case, she isn’t even talking about people being offensive but just not having what the author considers a captivating comment.
I think Althouse would be better served by calling out or highlighting the comments that she finds catchy for whatever reason. And doubly served by allowing her audience the same ability. Eliminating the comments section has a high chance of driving away your most engaged audience.
She is free to make whatever bad decisions she wants.
She makes the mistake of thinking the comenters see themselves as “published.” Most commenters on blogs merely want to have a conversation, with most of the bickering originating from self-important blowhards, the bane not only of blogs, but bars, the breakroom at work, and backyard barbecues, long before the Interdweebz was invented. Better than curating (which is simply overbroad moderation) is to have a sign-up and log-in system (with verifiable identity). People get to say what they want, within host-set limits and the true bad actors are simply kicked out. And you turn it Interdweebz facing so the Dweebiverse can read the content without commenting.
Althouse does have some loony regulars in her comments section. She has the woman I call the State’s Handmaiden, who never met a Hive party line she wouldn’t echo; a couple of left-wingers who seem to be writing their comments in some sort of mental institution (if you read her blog regularly, you know who I mean); not to mention a couple of Dumb Trumpkins who think anyone who is not enamored of Trump must be a secret “cuck” or “left winger.” I hope they don’t go away (well, I hope some do because they like to flood her comments’ section with their ravings) because it’s good to expose how jerky the Hive is these days.