any thoughts on billmon going commentless?
i dont spend that much time in comment threads but i still find them useful. wasnt one of the innovation of blogging the possibility for an open forum? i understand they can be unruly but should that be the determining factor?
im grateful for billmons prodigious output but he sure can be thinskinnned at times.
The man obviously has no sense of proportion. He writes one huge long (usually very good) post after another, reads everything on the comment boards, gets burned out, and then gets mad at everybody for reading him.
Once his comment board exploded, with hundreds of comments at times, I stopped reading/writing comments. Same with Calpundit Animal. But I also got tired of Kevin's writing, so I rarely visit. I've considered being a hanger-on at a lesser luminary, e.g. Digby.
I think everyone should just have their own blogs and use trackback. This way the conversation takes place across the web, rather than on one persons page. You lose a little continuity because you have to click around to read the "conversation" that used to be in one place, but you gain a lot as well. Trolling goes to almost zero if you have to put the troll on your own page rather than in the comments on someone else's blog. And obviously this system spreads the financial burden around as well.
I will be happy if he just continues to write. I think he is the best blogger (I know that's ridiculous to say, but what the heck...)
digby v. drum = no contest
are we recognized by others trackback? it doesnt seem so.
We don't have trackback here (although arguably our 'reference tracking' is much more advanced.)
Just to prove a point
As a novice luddite comment-or here on digitalmediatree I will just chime in with my two cents…
I would be pretty voiceless here without comments, to say the least. But I think I understand that someone would feel instinctively protective about their blog - and certainly rude or thoughtless remarks would encourage the desire to keep it contained in some way. How do you keep it in control? I guess the ideal would be to be not ‘popular’? Or to stay very specific? Do you want as many people as possible to see your posts? Or just people 'like' you? It seems to me though - and I apologize that this I am sure seems rudimentary - that there is a big difference between blogs that talk or yell versus those that have conversations. Mr. Wilson, sally mckay and tom moody have spoken recently about the idea of the blog very eloquently – it has helped me understand some things. (Although for sure I have no idea what 'trackbacks' or 'reference tracking' is :-)
I've been thinking about the comments thing. My old (print) magazine had a huge section called "shotgun reviews" for which we had an open call for art reviews of 200-300 words. We rarely denied a review, and when we did it was pretty much solely on the basis of it being too promotional without saying much. Lots of novice artists got coverage, and lots of novice writers got published alongside some of the most experienced art writers in Canada and some of the best artists in the world. Also (due mostly to me and my friend Von Bark) other things got covered like sidewalk cracks, birds, cats and Christmas. Anyhow. I like the comments section on blogs very much, but I liked the shotgun reviews better. For one thing the mediators (myself and my co-editor) were in the background, so the territory of the page really did belong to the writers. For another thing the writing was edited and considered and even the crappy stuff was pretty good. A ton of people read it who never contributed, but still felt like it was theirs. I want something like that online. The blog is probably as sastisfying as it can get without devoting undue time and financial resources (the reason we stopped making the mag - the $$$ debt is not pretty) to editing and image-sourcing other people's writing, but I'm still casting around for options. Any ideas?
DailyKos has diaries, comments, etc., that are all over the map, like most blog comment sections. They also have guest writers who are vetted. Some of the diaries get "promoted" to the main page. And some diarists get promoted to guest writers. That's the closest model I know of to your shotgun reviews.
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i dont spend that much time in comment threads but i still find them useful. wasnt one of the innovation of blogging the possibility for an open forum? i understand they can be unruly but should that be the determining factor?
im grateful for billmons prodigious output but he sure can be thinskinnned at times.
- dave 6-30-2004 4:25 pm
The man obviously has no sense of proportion. He writes one huge long (usually very good) post after another, reads everything on the comment boards, gets burned out, and then gets mad at everybody for reading him.
- tom moody 6-30-2004 7:08 pm [add a comment]
Once his comment board exploded, with hundreds of comments at times, I stopped reading/writing comments. Same with Calpundit Animal. But I also got tired of Kevin's writing, so I rarely visit. I've considered being a hanger-on at a lesser luminary, e.g. Digby.
- mark 6-30-2004 7:24 pm [add a comment]
I think everyone should just have their own blogs and use trackback. This way the conversation takes place across the web, rather than on one persons page. You lose a little continuity because you have to click around to read the "conversation" that used to be in one place, but you gain a lot as well. Trolling goes to almost zero if you have to put the troll on your own page rather than in the comments on someone else's blog. And obviously this system spreads the financial burden around as well.
I will be happy if he just continues to write. I think he is the best blogger (I know that's ridiculous to say, but what the heck...)
- jim 6-30-2004 7:38 pm [add a comment]
digby v. drum = no contest
- dave 6-30-2004 7:52 pm [add a comment]
are we recognized by others trackback? it doesnt seem so.
- dave 6-30-2004 8:03 pm [add a comment]
We don't have trackback here (although arguably our 'reference tracking' is much more advanced.)
- jim 6-30-2004 8:11 pm [add a comment]
Just to prove a point
As a novice luddite comment-or here on digitalmediatree I will just chime in with my two cents…
I would be pretty voiceless here without comments, to say the least. But I think I understand that someone would feel instinctively protective about their blog - and certainly rude or thoughtless remarks would encourage the desire to keep it contained in some way. How do you keep it in control? I guess the ideal would be to be not ‘popular’? Or to stay very specific? Do you want as many people as possible to see your posts? Or just people 'like' you? It seems to me though - and I apologize that this I am sure seems rudimentary - that there is a big difference between blogs that talk or yell versus those that have conversations. Mr. Wilson, sally mckay and tom moody have spoken recently about the idea of the blog very eloquently – it has helped me understand some things. (Although for sure I have no idea what 'trackbacks' or 'reference tracking' is :-)
- selma 6-30-2004 9:32 pm [add a comment]
I've been thinking about the comments thing. My old (print) magazine had a huge section called "shotgun reviews" for which we had an open call for art reviews of 200-300 words. We rarely denied a review, and when we did it was pretty much solely on the basis of it being too promotional without saying much. Lots of novice artists got coverage, and lots of novice writers got published alongside some of the most experienced art writers in Canada and some of the best artists in the world. Also (due mostly to me and my friend Von Bark) other things got covered like sidewalk cracks, birds, cats and Christmas. Anyhow. I like the comments section on blogs very much, but I liked the shotgun reviews better. For one thing the mediators (myself and my co-editor) were in the background, so the territory of the page really did belong to the writers. For another thing the writing was edited and considered and even the crappy stuff was pretty good. A ton of people read it who never contributed, but still felt like it was theirs. I want something like that online. The blog is probably as sastisfying as it can get without devoting undue time and financial resources (the reason we stopped making the mag - the $$$ debt is not pretty) to editing and image-sourcing other people's writing, but I'm still casting around for options. Any ideas?
- sally mckay 7-02-2004 5:17 pm [add a comment]
DailyKos has diaries, comments, etc., that are all over the map, like most blog comment sections. They also have guest writers who are vetted. Some of the diaries get "promoted" to the main page. And some diarists get promoted to guest writers. That's the closest model I know of to your shotgun reviews.
- mark 7-02-2004 10:02 pm [add a comment]