Blog Bouncers

Perry de Havilland, over at Samizdata, has an interesting little post up regarding legitmate blog commentors, trolls, roaches, and censorship.  The post is titled “Blogs need to have bouncers." An excerpt.

"When you open your house to visitors, you do not give up the right to kick people out if they start insulting other guests and spray painting their opinions on the wall. Of course some people would say, “Oh but that is censorship if you stop them”. Er, no, it is just maintaining control over what is and is not acceptable on your private property… but of course some people, the sort that I am now far quicker to ban, do not actually believe in private property (not when you pin them down), and often cannot see that censorship by the state of private media channels and editorial control over a private media channel (such as a blog, for example) are materially different things. But then to someone who thinks all interaction should be political (the usual term used is ‘democratic’ these days), such distinctions make little difference to them. I am not referring here to specific people but rather the general class from which our ‘problem commenters’ tend to spring."

Posted by on 06/26 at 06:12 AM

  1. I’ve had occasion to limit access to the comment section on my own Blog. Twice in fact… both members of the same family.

    Usualy, I take the attitude that if someone wants to be a cavity, let them; they serve as a bad example. But even there, there’s a threshold which is crossable if not exactly defineable.

    The bottom line though is, I’m trying to attract readers.  Yes, I’d like to change minds in the process, but to do that one needs to attract readers first. Having some talk-show experience in my history, I tend to rely on those instincts as to when the line between “interesting reading” and “mornic BS” gets crossed. I’m fortunate, as I say, to only have to thow that switch twice, now.

    Posted by Bithead  on  06/26  at  10:05 AM

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