It was six months ago today that I got tired of presiding over a junior high locker room in my comments section.
I shut down comments for two weeks. Some ‘problem’ commenters went away. So, unfortunately, did some memorably good ones.
The vibe is different. I think I’m OK with that.
Thoughts in the comments.
I know I personally comment in streaks, when it was especially cesspooly, I’d read your post and move on without bothering with the comment section. There are still commenters that make me want bang my head against the way, but that’s true for anything Republican or Conservative these days. With the problems toned down, I’m back to commenting…sometime.
Is the comment section better, as a whole, since you paused comments? Probably. Those lows were awfully low. But losing the some of the better comments also hurts, so unfortunately, it’s not as good as it would be if you had only lost the bad ones. That part sucks.
The ad hominem schtick got old. Put out your opinion, maybe one rebuttal comment, then let it go. I’m not changing anyone’s mind, nor they mine except to reflect and refine my position.
I only comment if I think I can add to the discussion. (Unless the need for snark is just too great)
The trolls going away is good. I do miss a few folks from the earlier days. I like good faith arguments but it seems those are in short supply from the port side.
The comments should be more focused on fostering dialogue and improving our understanding of each other’s position, and less on tearing another person down for having a “wrong” opinion. The trolls’ departure has moved us more toward that ideal.
I’m happy with the way things sorted out. It seemed that some felt the need to battle out their ill feelings for each other here on your blog, that got boring quickly. I do miss a couple of folks that haven’t added their input lately…hopefully they’ll be back in the future.
Every social media site that is based on common sense and conservative values and principles, have left wing trolls either hired or created, commenting nonsense and many times, off topic.
AlphaNews is one of those that after the site went live, it quickly attracted (or, more likely) had trolls assigned to make left wing aligned comments and try to pick fights.
I’ll bring up the 800lb gorilla in the room who partially caused the shutdown: Swiftee.
I still maintain that a lot of his comments were misinterpreted. Some on here believed that since he was anti-Ukraine, that meant he had to be pro-Russia. He was anti-both sides. I said that more than once, but it went unnoticed. Yes he was about as firebrand as you could get for the libertarian/paleoconservative side. I still valued a lot of what he had to say. However, I get it that something Mitch said set him off and he went batshit crazy on Mitch, who then reduced the benevolence level of his benevolent dictatorship.
All true, but it was something else he said, probably a year back, that cut my tolerance down below zero.
Bill, my take on Swiftee is that you needed to read between the lines to see what his real motivations were, and when I did, I had to come to a much harsher conclusion. Like millions, he was clearly taken in by Russian propaganda, but unlike most of those, he seemed to rejoice at every real or imagined advance of the Red Army, and seemed to show no compassion for the millions of innocents suffering as a result.
You had that with him as well regarding racial issues–it was not for no reason that I took to calling him “Sheets” as well as “Kremlin Tom”.