Samuel James on Comments on the Internet

I’d like to invite my readers to go read an insightful post by my colleague, Samuel James, over at Samuel’s Notebook. He recently disabled his comments section and reflects on whether it is possible to cultivate healthy conversation in the comments section of websites. (He concludes, probably not, although he allows that Facebook and Twitter can sometimes yield healthier conversations.)

I think here at my site, we have all worked hard to maintain a healthy community of discussion. Certainly, there have been times where we’ve gotten off track, but overall, I would brag to anybody about my readers and how hard they work to keep discussion collegial.

But James’s post reminds me how very rare this dynamic is and how hard we must all continue to work to preserve the very special thing we have here. Thank you all for being part of this community. Let’s all continue this crazy experiment wherein people who think differently about the world and faith and life can talk to each other without yelling, trolling, or hating. Let’s never take it for granted.

What are your thoughts? What can we do to continue to cultivate a healthy community here?