Reasons you will hate me

Timmy is a nice bloke, and he's overseen the production of a number of zoologically-themed books for nerds (in fact my desk is presently strewn with several), and really, death threats are no less horrid in cyberspace than in the big room with the blue ceiling beyond it -- so one must be a bit respectful when one says that he's off his fucking rocker on this one.

Ms Fits,

This is the latest MSM-orchestrated frenzy of anti-blogger hysteria (yes, it was on the front page of the New York Times).

We bloggers are not fit to comment on the daily ins and outs of the world because we inhabit a netherworld where bile and abuse are standard fare, where opinions pass as facts and REAL journalists would never dare to tread. Not like, for example, decent people like Alan Jones...

This is all coming from that Kathy Sierra thing that I was asking you about in the last Friday Q&A. Unfortunately not everyone is blessed with quite as thick a skin as your good self, and it would be good if the more delicate souls could be protected in some way, but I think everybody needs to take a good deep breath about this one.

It all comes back to the old freedom of speech dilema. Who decides when someone has over stepped the line and on what grounds? I'm all for freedom of speech, but I'm also for certain individuals having their larynx forcibly removed and their fingers chopped off. Can these two ideals coexist? Who decides?

And why don't we extend the code to outlaw narcissistic posts and sycophantic comments....and blogs about reality TV shows.

*sharpens axe*

Ms Fits, I was most taken aback yesterday at the vitriol some people display toward you - entirely uncalled for. ALthough I dont always agree with you, I love your irreverant, good-hearted approach to life and will always support your right to say whatever you'd like. And also I have a bit of a crush.

That said, the idea that a virtual 'badge' will make any difference at all is exactly the kind of mindless shit that the sucks in power believe in. It will make not a skerrick of difference to the occasional moron who delights in spewing forth hate, as a thinly-disguised release from their personal self-dissatisfaction. Stay true, girl - thousands love you.

If a blogger really objects to a comment, can't they just delete it? I never have (possibly because I have yet to inspire sufficient passion in a reader to cause raging spluttering rudeness) and a comment would have to be pretty vile for me to do so. I don't see the need to make a big show of joining a 'We Play Nice' club.

i think a "we play nice" club would be boring. i don't want a badge and i don't want you to have a badge, fits, that represents all those things which would make a blog sterile and dull.

i'm all for manners too, but i think i'm more for people having the freedom to say what they like, and that includes calling me a dick.

You really are out of the loop, hon. Good to see you back in the dorkfest for a day.

So I'm wondering...

If Ms Fits got a phone call, how many OTHER Aussie bloggers got smiliar phone calls?

Five bucks says this was a RUPERT MURDOCH newspaper calling! Answer please, Ms Fits?

How exactly is this meant to work? Does a third party monitor the comments and remove offensive [?] posts?...Or does it mean that you'll just delete anything that annoys you?

If nothing else perhaps it'll lead to a better class of invective and the re-introduction of subtlety in swearing...[I dibs catamite]

I don't really see how it's actually going to work in practice either. Unless comments are always moderated, which will somewhat diminish the appealing sense of immediacy in commenting. If you were able to send out teams of killer robots to attack commenters you didn't like it might ... be just like Tim Blair's site.

They also should have chosen something more catchy than "badge of civility" like Shroud of Pleasantness or even NastyShield.

"Five bucks says this was a RUPERT MURDOCH newspaper calling! Answer please, Ms Fits?"

It would've been The Age.

Fits,

I'm wondering if the new 'civility' code has more to do with people like Perez Hilton writing nice things like "slut" and "crack whore" on the celebrity paparazzi photos he publishes on his site, than the knobs who write vile things on your blog?

As for your own scribblings, as John Howard obviously IS a cunt and fuckstick, I can't see that this includes you in anyway as you are simply exhibiting truth in journalism!

And how about the fucker backing up Alan Jones today?!?!?!

(Ew, that paints a nasty picture, doesn't it!)

Jeremy, I'm so glad you provided that link - this quote made me giggle:

"Never wrestle with a pig," it advises. "You both get dirty, but the pig likes it."

awww...

I dunno, if someone hates you vehemently enough to comment on your blog, I think I take that as a good thing, especially where you believe what you're saying. Or you're taking the piss in the first place. Either of those works for me.

But surely such a badge just screams:

I'M A WEAKLING!! BE NICE!!!!

No one needs that. Besides, most truly offensive comments usually make up peoples' minds about such authors without any need for censorship or editorial input. That's the real beauty of free speech.

Tend to agree with TLS - I think the truly offensive comments reside somewhere between "enough rope to hang him/herself" & Napoleon's dictum to "never interrupt your enemy while he's making a mistake". But I'd still like real-life killer robots. Or attack-monkeys. This wish may have nothing to do with blog commentary.

The easier way is just to remove anonmymous comments from your blog all together. I do miss watching people get into fights with Howard Gipps over A Current Affair though - he used to post to a TV discussion group called aus.tv before it was invaded by teenagers fighting over Big Brother.

Hmm not really understanding this too well, but having a 'badge' and actively policing a blog is supposedly going to make us all behave in nicer ways. A bit lost on that personally, people are going to be arsehats regardless of a little badge and a blogger that removes comments that may offend. It would be easier to remove porn from the web than to change the attitudes of the faceless hordes of keyboard commandos.

To be fair, very little of this has to do with wearing a badge or not. Most of what the people behind the Code of Conduct are trying to do is legitimise a set of actions (notably, bloggers deleting comments on their site) that ordinarily would make the blogger appear thin-skinned.

That much is actually fair enough. People invest a lot of time in cultivating their little garden on the web, and cop inordinate flack for merely tending to the weeds.

I don't think you should give them hell for the dorky badges, which really just say "I like to pull out weeds." But statements like "We take responsibility for ... the comments we allow on our blog" or "We connect privately before we respond publicly" are seven kinds of fucked up. Say what?

Well, according to the Age article, banning anonymous comments is one of the parts, making it madatory for people to connect a valid email to any comment.
Personally, i'm too lazy. Yay anonymous!

It's far too easy to get a valid email address, like with Ebay. I bid on my own auctions from various accounts all the time. Fat lot of good it does me, but the point is the email addresses.
And personally, I like your haircut.

I should have the worries - I'm lucky if I get two comments a months. And they're usually from friends. But then my blog is of limited interest to those who don't know me. I could go so far as to say it's boring.

I think the concept is hilarious because it assumes that people will suddenly *want* to be nice to each other, when anyone who's spent some time on the web knows that this is a *highly* unlikely situation...

i think warren ellis has the right logo for this.

In respect to these obnoxious little dogooders they get right up my nose. Freedom of speech is what is at stake here by critical self righteous minorities. The point being if your not ruffling a few feathers on occasion your failing as a communicator period. One of the best example of this is Alan Jones, stir people up, boy, you bet he does, but sometimes you need to wind folks up to make them think.

Btw Ms Fits do you suppose this `nice man' aware of RYWHM and thats why the call?

how's it going Woofy McWoof Woof?? missed the show this week...damn!