Now that The Pontificators is up and running and we’re spreading the word a bit, I’m hoping that we’re pulling in some outside readers. If you’re here from the Big World, welcome, y’all! You might have noticed that readers can’t comment on the blog posts here; I thought I’d explain why.
I was a serious internet news junkie during the last election cycle, and was amazed by the wide range of comments posted against the stories – some intelligent and insightful, others hateful, small-minded, and ignorant. As much as I would like to encourage the first kind of comments, I don’t know how to avoid the second.
If we implement unmoderated and anonymous comments, someone would need to go through the comment stream and take out the trash, so to speak. If we have moderated comments only, someone would have to review and approve them all. The Pontificators are all busy people, and I would like us to spend our blog time creating and posting original content, which is what We Tiggers Do Best.
So for now, only the contributors can comment, which turns the comment stream into part of the content. Like the song, We Are Family here, and we all have history and relationship with each other. So in addition to each contributor’s wrtiting, you’ll be able to see the chatter between Pontificators as we are surprised and pleased (or perhaps displeased) by each new post.
That doesn’t mean we don’t care about the outside world — we do, and we want to know what you think. We are still setting up our site, so we may not have a Contact Us link yet, but your comments are always welcome at admin@thepontificators.com. I’ll try to find a way to make this blog more “Web 2.0,” to give readers a place and voice in the community. Send your ideas along.
I think opening up comments is better than keeping them closed whether we get ridiculous ones or not. There’s nothing I dislike more than a starting position of distrust, even if it is distrusting a pile of internet strangers we technically owe nothing. Sets a bad precedent.
That said, I do think that moderation (as opposed to a free-for-all) is the way to go. While we are each fairly busy, the Pontificators en masse spend a pretty staggering amount of time on the internet. If it was set to moderated commenting and all contributors given the ability to approve comments, each contributor could approve whatever’s there (or whatever they have time for) when they’re online.
Of course, even opening up moderated posting comes with some issues. What is and isn’t an appropriate comment? Like you stated in the opening entry, we’re a pretty ideologically varied group. What’s a flattering statement to one of us might be an inexcusable insult to another. It also leads to the question of: how much debate is okay? Of course, these are questions for after we decide to switch to moderated posting, if we do. Pretty moot for now.
I like the idea very much of others being able to comment. I’m not entirely sure we need moderators to cut out the stupid, inane, hateful stuff. I sort of doubt we’d get too much of that anyway—this coming from an extremely cynical person. And even if we do, we can quickly remove if we really want to. The only kind of comments I’d be worried about are the bots who post links to porn sites.
Since I already know all those spots, it would be redundant information.
I’M KIDDING.
Another possibility would be to open up a reader’s comments section that is separate from the original posts–sort of a lounge, if you will. Or at least a way for readers to contact us. Some sort of reader mail setup. We could even occasionally post interesting tidbits that people send our way, Might be fun.
Of course, I gotta say, I have tendencies towards OCD when it comes to keeping things all neatly separate and organized. But the act of organizing is very dreaded to me, so the idea of endlessly shuffling through reader comments to decide which ones stay and which ones go–well, that sounds like it will put me in burnout mode five minutes ago. But a completely open reader lounge or guestbook kind of thing, that we wouldn’t moderate unless absolutely necessary–I like the sound of this. But I gotta say, I like the sound of reader mail better, because it’s private and wouldn’t clutter up the site, but still gives people the opportunity to share their thoughts as well.
And lastly, I think people will lose interest if there isn’t at least some level of interaction. For example, if I post my drawings and challenges (I plan to do more art related challenges, so it’s a valid example), readers may want to join in the fun, and get irritated that they can’t send in their poems and stories if they want to.
Anyway, just thought I’d throw my sixpence in.
Hahaha, Naomi–hilarious! Yeah, the only moderation I’d be worried about would be flame wars and spam bots. Everything else, inane or otherwise, is all the same to the clam.
What’s a flattering statement to one of us might be an inexcusable insult to another.
Ha! Yeah like when the grandparents on mom’s side kept likening me to Sarah Palin.
I always get likened to Jimmy Dean.
Not the actor, but the sausage.
I’m a fan, Naomi.
I wish I was likened to a person or thing… it would make me feel glamorous.
I liken you to AWESOME.
BAM! I’m off for Glamor Shots, who’s comin’?
I’ll come! Instead of “cheese” I’ll just look at the camera and say “Joe sixpack.”
Or you could just wink.
Winking would also be good! I’m a seasoned winker, don’t you know. When I was born the first thing my mom’s midwife said was “he’s winking at me!” No joke.
Don’t forget to click your teeth and point at the camera Derringer style!
Does Glamor Shots allow hot dog suits?
I’ve been thinking about this a bit more, and I see Arthur’s point about the comments being part of the content. Charlie’s idea about some sort of posting area that is separate from the content is interesting. I definitely see both sides, and think a compromise somewhere in the middle might be nice.
Is discussing the pros and cons of other people communicating with us a sign of pretension? I’d like to think ostensibly so.
Well, the site is new, so one can only hope people will respect our need to brainstorm–even if it is public. My favorite idea is still a TP webmail system. They wouldn’t distract from the point of the blog, because they wouldn’t be public comments, but I have a feeling we would get some interesting mail from people, and I for one would like to hear what people have to say about our creative outpourings. I’m curious. I won’t lie.
And might I add, there are enough members here for each of us to take one day out of the week to sift through mail. Right? I mean, I know we don’t all have time for that, but there are more than seven of us, so those who don’t have time could opt out, and those who may have more time (like me, hahaha-yeah, I’m one of those web losers…), could perhaps take two days or something. Anyway, just continuing to throw stuff into the basket. I like throwing. It’s fun.
It’s a blog, eh? Gotta allow public comment. Man, I doubt anybody is reading this but us anyway, but if so, they should be able to comment. The best (and easiest) policy is let people comment, and delete spam and crap. As for deleting on content using other types of filters, like disagreeing or something, NEVER! After all, Arthur, someone could comment and praise Obama’s vision for the future, and I’d want to delete the comment, and someone could comment and criticize Obama, and you’d want to delete.
or something…
OK. So Duke is always accusung me of being an “effing control freak.” And the annoying thing about Duke is he’s almost always right. So I will open up comments and we’ll see what happens. Meanwhile, I have added an email link to the sidebar, so the world has both public and private ways of reaching us.