Blog Comments: A new Civility Barometer?

While in L.A. on a recent business trip, I heard an ad on the hotel TV for the new BMW Hydrogen 7. I was up to my elbows trying to repack my suitcase, so I didn't actually see it, but back here in Vermont a little googling brought me to a blog about the car on treehugger.com. As I read down through the comments, I noticed something at the bottom: The "post a comment" button doesn't say "post a comment"; it says, "post an intelligent and civil comment." Hey now--that's a little different. The next day, two different friends forwarded me this piece on civility in commenting from the Miami Herald. Seems like the fates are trying to bring something to my attention, so I'm going to play nice with karma and bring it to yours, too.

I'm cringing a little as I type, knowing that a blogger blogging about a code of conduct for leaving comments is the electronic equivalent of putting a "kick me" sign on my backside. All the same, here goes. There has long been a debate in the blogging community about whether or not to police comments. Almost a year ago, The New York Times did a piece on this topic, and I think it's worth a revisit. This may not come as a big shocker, but I'm all for a little civility on the web.

In essence, the internet is (for better or worse) the last Wild West we have left to us; a place that is slowing going the way of Dodge City, but that still has lots of places that are, if not ungoverned, at least governed with the lightest touch. It makes for a pretty raw reflection of who we are and how we express ourselves--a true barometer of our civility, if you will. But I think it's also something else--I think it's a forum to decide who we want to become as a society.

Our society here in America is synonymous with freedom of speech, yes, but not freedom from accountability. Words have power, and with power comes responsibility. The words in blogs and their comments are a form of communication, a form of interaction between anyone who writes and/or reads them. I'm going to lean on an old quote from Emily Post herself: "Whenever two people's lives affect one another, you have etiquette." You may not see or even know the person whose words you are reading, but they can engender very strong, personal reactions all the same.

If part of blogging and commenting is to take part in a global conversation--an exchange of ideas--I believe it's important to think about what our purpose is when we choose to participate. In most cases, it's to share a thought you're excited about, or to make a counterpoint to someone else in an effort to set a record straight or make a clarification. I can't think of a single case where leaving a profane or hateful comment will bring about a positive, constructive change. This doesn't mean that I think people can't disagree; in fact I'd encourage people to talk about points of difference, as it invites communication, something I talk a lot about on the job. The better our communication, the greater our understanding becomes, and the more connections we can make with people who hold similar interests. All of this hopefully leads to the generation of exciting new ideas and possibilities. I simply add my support to expressing yourself with the principles of etiquette: consideration, honesty and respect. Who wouldn't want to be treated that way?

Comments

[Cathexis]

Strange, that posting a comment on the Internet seems to cause some people to lose their basic civility and make comments that they'd never make in real life. Or would they? Sadly, it seems increasingly common for people to equate assertiveness and honesty with boorish aggression and/or vulgarity -- in most aspects of life. Pity that their own sense of personal honour and integrity is so little.

[EspritDeVoltaire]

Censorship, even self censorship is a thorny issue. I think a worse problem than profanity or civility in general is the rise of the troll, someone who specializes in only inflammatory comments. The moderator system, here for example, is slow enough with out scanning ever comment for language which is questionable. Inspecting and removing flagged comments, if they indeed qualify as abusive, and reading the lists of published comments for editing out offenders is much more effective from a discourse standpoint.

[JimReed]

Anna,
You add your support to honesty and respect, but the problem comes when people are policed, and offending comments deleted or rejected. People who are empowered to clean up the conversation tend to have a point of view, and what they tend to find most offensive might be honest and respectful comments that damage their point of view. Some of the most offensive comments can be allowed because they are easily countered, and letting them through shows a balanced forum, but comments they can't logically deal with would be the most dangerous if they did get through.

I guess the point is don't be offended by the offensive, just be thankful for any honesty that gets through.
_____
Friends don't let friends buy Rush.

[jeskiley]

You say it's about ettiquette, and I say it's about advertising for your business (yawn.) Did I just say that? I meant, you say it's about ettiquette and I say it's about character. An uncivil post says more about the commenter than it does about the blogger. If a true relationship exists, a mutual respect, then both parties are served by an exchange of nice comments. But so long as anonymity reigns the web, superficial connections between people, you can expect superficial reasoning when deciding how to express ourselves. Sometimes being a jerk just feels good. But if I really like you, I wouldn't dare contaminate your space. If an actual society has potential, I put my effort toward building a rapport, otherwise, your blurbs are no more important than mine.

[crabbie]

Bite me.

[wadenelson1]

LMAO Crabbie.

Sometimes the best thing to come out of the blogs is the occasional humor comment, as above, that hits the nail on the head and not only drives it in but properly countersinks it.

If I were competing with Jon Steward, Leno, or any of the rest I wouldn't hire writers. I'd just troll Huffpo for the odd news story followed by a comment as funny as Crabbie's.

What I expect will come NEXT is newspapers reporting stories (2 days late, as usual) accompanied by "Best of" Comments, humorous AND serious, gleaned from Huffpo and other blogs.

What WOULD clean up blogs a lot would be forcing posters to list their real name, email & physical address, place of employment, (e.g. Mother's basement) a photo, and so forth.

Then again, the murder rate is already high enough.

[rovezaleeker]

Good post even though I disagree with it from a censorship point of view. What is profane to you may not mean the same thing to me or to Joe Blow down the street. Sometimes there just isn't anything better than a well placed F-bomb. Those four little letters arranged in that particular order sure seems to evoke a plethora of different emotions and connotation. Sometimes it just feels good. I find nothing profane about it in that context. But, if you put the word "mother" in front of it and "er" on the end of it and direct it toward my 75 year old father, I'd probably punch you in the fucking face. I like to comment on blogs and sometimes I don't give a shit about etiquette or being nice. In the heat of the moment, when I'm on a roll and the keyboard is clacking away and at the end when I hit the "Post a Comment" button, the last thing I think about as I head out the door is whether I should or shouldn't be profane. It's just a comment.