Sunday, June 08, 2008
Comments vs. Blogs
Diarist Sean Roche, of the popular blog Blue Mass Group, had an interesting post a few days ago on a subject very near to Swampscott. Lincoln-Sudbury's Superintendent, John Ritchie, used part of his commencement speech at their school's graduation to courageously tackle the anonymous postings of adults in the community, imploring his students never to stoop to their level. Specifically, he said:
As someone with some experience in both local campaigns and blogs, I hear time and time again people talking about comments on WickedLocal and other community papers as "the blogs." It's a dangerous precedent that must be kept in check, immediately. Unlike WickedLocal comments, blogs are actually held accountable - people have to sign in, build reputation and live by what they say. Anonymous comments on community papers are poison precisely because they aren't blogs: there's no signing in, so people can create new user names every time they post. Furthermore, there's no good way to keep track of anonymous comments, whereas blogs live online (and are easy to find) forever. The result is anonymous commenters aren't afraid to say anything, no matter how mean or vile, or whether or not it's backed up with facts. People say whatever they want because they're not held accountable, leading to such putrid words that Swampscott's own WickedLocal shut down its comments for months.
It's easy to see where the confusion grows: most of the population's never been to a blog; people just think any online commentary is simply 'blogging.' It would be nice if we could chalk this up to one big confusion, but by allowing this misunderstanding to take place, the reputation of blogs as useful tools is being sullied, all the while the real culprits are free from actually fixing the problem.
The problem is greatly exacerbated because, ultimately, this is about good journalism. The Swampscott Reporter wouldn't allow people to say anything they wanted in letters to the editor or the opinion section, so why should their comment section be treated any differently? Accountability in newspapers matter, perhaps more than anything else, and they're letting their good names be dragged through the mud because they haven't caught up to the Web 2.0.
So, what the heck are we going to do about it?
What are the problems?
All of this becomes vastly more important because there's an intrinsic value to blogs: they cover events that newspapers can't cover and they democratize information. If the vast majority of the population doesn't value the medium of blogging, it's only going to be that much harder to sustain the progress that the blogosphere has been able to spearhead. Most importantly, when it comes to being online, while being anonymous can be a good thing, being unaccountable is never acceptable. The progressive blogosphere is built around that premise, but it can't rest until it's a universal standard all across the Internet.
Note: Parts of this blog were originally posted on my primary blog, Ryan's Take.
Here's my advice: if you ever find yourself in a position where you are writing things for public consumption that have no intent other than to cause pain or cast aspersions on people, call people's character into question, question their ethics or honesty - and you're afraid to sign your name because if anyone ever knew it was you writing it, you'd be ashamed and embarrassed, you're on the wrong track.Those are good words to live by. Unfortunately, Roche took offense to Ritchie's comments because the Superintendent blamed it on "the blogs." However, that doesn't take away from Superintedent Ritchie's case, as I suggested in Roche's diary: Superintendent Ritchie's only mistake was to confuse blogging with commenting. Unfortunately, it's an all-too common confusion.
As someone with some experience in both local campaigns and blogs, I hear time and time again people talking about comments on WickedLocal and other community papers as "the blogs." It's a dangerous precedent that must be kept in check, immediately. Unlike WickedLocal comments, blogs are actually held accountable - people have to sign in, build reputation and live by what they say. Anonymous comments on community papers are poison precisely because they aren't blogs: there's no signing in, so people can create new user names every time they post. Furthermore, there's no good way to keep track of anonymous comments, whereas blogs live online (and are easy to find) forever. The result is anonymous commenters aren't afraid to say anything, no matter how mean or vile, or whether or not it's backed up with facts. People say whatever they want because they're not held accountable, leading to such putrid words that Swampscott's own WickedLocal shut down its comments for months.
It's easy to see where the confusion grows: most of the population's never been to a blog; people just think any online commentary is simply 'blogging.' It would be nice if we could chalk this up to one big confusion, but by allowing this misunderstanding to take place, the reputation of blogs as useful tools is being sullied, all the while the real culprits are free from actually fixing the problem.
The problem is greatly exacerbated because, ultimately, this is about good journalism. The Swampscott Reporter wouldn't allow people to say anything they wanted in letters to the editor or the opinion section, so why should their comment section be treated any differently? Accountability in newspapers matter, perhaps more than anything else, and they're letting their good names be dragged through the mud because they haven't caught up to the Web 2.0.
So, what the heck are we going to do about it?
What are the problems?
- Anonymity.
- Unaccountability.
- A general ignorance about the web 2.0.
- Solving anonymity: the universal acceptance of 'signing in.'
- Solving the accountability gap: the universal promotion of online meritocracy; making newspapers buy into the importance of building user-name reputation.
- Solving Web ignorance: education. Everyone should know what a blog is versus a comment versus an Internet forum.
All of this becomes vastly more important because there's an intrinsic value to blogs: they cover events that newspapers can't cover and they democratize information. If the vast majority of the population doesn't value the medium of blogging, it's only going to be that much harder to sustain the progress that the blogosphere has been able to spearhead. Most importantly, when it comes to being online, while being anonymous can be a good thing, being unaccountable is never acceptable. The progressive blogosphere is built around that premise, but it can't rest until it's a universal standard all across the Internet.
Note: Parts of this blog were originally posted on my primary blog, Ryan's Take.
Labels: blogs, the Reporter, wickedlocal
# posted by Ryan @ 6:33 PM 
