Comments are the blessing and bane of weblogs. Here at TMV, we value comments from readers because we try (and hope) that on most posts, at least, discussion in comments represent vigorous but thoughtful debate. Ditto on on our posts.
But let’s admit something that’s a fact of life about sites such as this that have popped up in the Internet revolution. Just as the concept of weblogs is a work in progress (are they going to remain mostly extended op-ed pages or offer lots more original reporting?), so are comments.
So we’d like to again note our ideal…which can be found when you post a comment in our comments policy underneath the comment posting area. And to see what our own posting ideal is, read our mission statement. In the nature of the way the blogworld operates, we stress that we’re NOT offering this link to spend 17 days responding to comments or posts about how on X or Y or Z post doesn’t fit into it, or to turn this site into a site writing about our mission statement (it ain’t gonna happen). We are merely giving the link as a reminder to you, and to all of us as well.
The mission statement is our goal as a site. The commenting policy is our goal and guidelines in comments.
Weblogs thrive on rapid-response, healthy passion over posts. It’s healthy when they focus on issues because weblogs then become a kind of printed talk radio…only more intellectual (we HOPE).
But when the comments section starts getting personal (for no matter what the reason or how it started), it then means we’ve failed in one of our goals and we’re off track and need to get back on track. So you may see more reminders in comments and occasionally a deleted comment or even several deleted in a thread if discussing issues has gotten highly personal, no matter what the perceived provocation. Comments will never be deleted just because a writer is criticized (if we did that, we’d have to shut off all comments on our posts and not accept any emails…).
In a sense, this post is a reminder to you and to us what we are trying to do on this modest site — write about issues, people in the news, events and also some popular culture.
And, who knows: if the discussion tone is (relatively) respectful, some minds could even be changed…It could happen if the focus remains on issues.
PS: If you disagree with this post, then you don’t wear underwear…
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.