This past week, Deacon Greg Kandra announced that he\u2019s closing down comments on his site for an indefinite period. As his junior colleague at Patheos, I want him to know I understand that move and support it wholeheartedly.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s amazing to see the things Greg goes through over at the Deacon\u2019s Bench. In my month and a half of blogging, I\u2019ve tended to choose quirky topics over controversial ones. As a result, I\u2019ve built up a relatively small but invaluable core of regular readers \u2014 nearly all of them generous, and better yet, fun-loving. Greg takes a different approach, casting a wide net for news on every imaginable subject, covered from every imaginable angle. For his troubles, he\u2019s gained a readership that, like the Church herself, might fairly be described as \u201cHere comes everybody.\u201d Only in Greg\u2019s case \u2014 at least lately \u2014 I\u2019d change that to: \u201cHere comes everybody, including a few hardheaded trolls.\u201d <\/p>\n
As blogging strategies go, Greg\u2019s ranks among the very bravest. If it pays its dividends in the form of high traffic, it also extracts a price in the form of stress. From those few occasions when I\u2019ve broken form and jumped into a controversy, I\u2019ve come to understand the variables involved well enough that I can explain them to anyone requiring an explanation.<\/p>\n
Think of a combox as a bar. Leather-lunged bullies are like bikers or drag queens. Singly or in small groups, they\u2019re easy enough to tolerate. Certainly their patronage is appreciated. When in the minority, they tend to conform, more or less, to house norms of behavior. Diversity enriches the place; ideally, it becomes a kind of Toots Shor\u2019s, where Supreme Court justices drank side-by-side with members of Murder, Inc. (If I may boast, my own joint has shown potential to develop in that direction. My most loyal readers include a sedevacantist and a co-operator in Opus Dei.)<\/p>\n
But the pushy types have a way of multiplying until they form a critical mass. When that happens, they scare everyone else off \u2014 for the simple reason that fairly few people think of the internet as a verbal gladiator school. Your average reader would sooner hold his tongue than have it torn out by the root. Since being scared into silence is no great inducement, the more pacific types will, eventually, find a friendlier place to play.<\/p>\n
Once the 800-lb gorillas have claimed all the seats of honor, they begin to demand the place be changed in accordance with their tastes. Returning to the bar analogy, they\u2019d insist the owner cover the floor with sawdust, or install a disco. They begin, in short, to act like shareholders, rather than ordinary patrons. I\u2019ve seen posters demand that I \u2014 or Greg, or Elizabeth \u2014 adjust our editorial policies. We mustn\u2019t write on this subject, or in that tone. Or, better, they\u2019ll insist we apologize for posting something that offends their sensibilities. On a particularly rough day, moderating a thread can feel like dealing with so many Abe Foxmans.<\/p>\n
In a way, it\u2019s easy to understand where they find such cheek. A regular reader might spend hours on his favorite blog. If a discussion gets on a roll, he could end up writing more words on the subject than the blogger has himself. To a point, he can even become one of the site\u2019s attractions: some readers will show up hoping to deflate him or win his approval. (In fact, the surest sign a thread\u2019s taken off is that respondents have forgotten about slitting the blogger\u2019s throat and abandoned themselves to slitting one another\u2019s.) <\/p>\n
But in the end, the relationship between blogger and readers, though intimate to an unprecedented degree, cannot be a relationship of equals. A blog is not a corporation or a limited partnership; it has a sole owner and proprietor, and that person deserves the exclusive right to make decisions. He\u2019s earned it by doing the most important work. Filling a combox with thousands of words of commentary takes skill and intelligence, to be sure. But choosing and framing topics so as to incite that kind of verbal effusion takes skill and intelligence, plus a special kind of informed discretion. Add the fact that the blogger is posting under his own name, usually with his own photograph, and has scattered more than a few key biographical details to the winds, and it becomes clear that blogging also takes a certain amount of guts. <\/p>\n
Now here comes the part that\u2019s unfair to readers: this sole owner, proprietor, content-generator and decision-maker is also human. That means he has a limited threshold for badgering. Anyone truly determined to fracture his peace of mind or puncture his ego stands a fair chance of doing either. But that could turn out to be a pyrrhic victory. Readers and their right to express themselves deserve a high priority, but the blogger must assign his own autonomy the very highest priority. Push a blogger to the point where something\u2019s got to give, and that thing could be you. <\/p>\n
A few weeks ago, I was talking this over with a woman who blogs on Patheos\u2019 pagan forum. She told me, \u201cMy blog is my house. I\u2019ll give the bum\u2019s rush to anyone I think deserves it,\u201c adding that this is a characteristically pagan way of seeing things. Vas heil,<\/em> and pass the hammer, thinks I. Right away, I squashed a couple of troublemakers, and have eighty-sixed one or two per week ever since. In case anyone\u2019s curious, my traffic has been improving steadily. <\/p>\n Greg\u2019s solution, I think, is much more charitable, and yes, more Christian. Whereas I rely on my intuition to spot an incorrigible turd, he calls everyone to conversion. It\u2019s the best deal in town, folks. I wouldn\u2019t hold out for anything better.<\/p>\n Enjoy your vacation, Deacon. You\u2019ve earned it.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This past week, Deacon Greg Kandra announced that he\u2019s closing down comments on his site for an indefinite period. As his junior colleague at Patheos, I want him to know I understand that move and support it wholeheartedly. It\u2019s amazing to see the things Greg goes through over at the Deacon\u2019s Bench. In my month […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":192,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[37,70,224],"class_list":["post-751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-blogging","tag-deacon-greg-kandra","tag-technology"],"yoast_head":"\n