As I run into readers of this blog, the question often raised is: When will government programs start to do this? Well, for those who don't work in this world (the 'blogosphere' in some circles), there are more answers to 'why not' than 'why' questions. Today's coverage in the NYT [Paper Decides to Close Blog, Citing Vitriol] of the closing of one of the blogs at the Washington Post (following the closing of a public blog at the Los Angeles Times last June) documents one important aspect of the 'why not' answers: to paraphrase a line from Jack Nicholson's character in "A Few Good Men:" They just can't handle the truth!
Mr. Brady wrote that he had expected criticism of The Post on the site, but that the public had violated rules against personal attacks and profanity.
"Because a significant number of folks who have posted in this blog have refused to follow any of those relatively simple rules, we've decided not to allow comments for the time being," Mr. Brady wrote. "Transparency and reasoned debate are crucial parts of the Web culture, and it's a disappointment to us that we have not been able to maintain a civil conversation, especially about issues that people feel strongly (and differently) about."
Coincidentally, or perhaps in a burst of synchronicity, David Pogue wrote in his column yesterday about the "rules for being an Internet pill" that have been developed by the Pills of the American Internet Neighborhood Society (PAINS). The Rules for Trolls and Pills include:
Trolling is making a deliberately inflammatory remark, one that you know perfectly well is baloney, just to get a rise out of other people. Trolling is an art. Trolling works just fine for an audience of one (say, a journalist), but of course the real fun is trolling on public bulletin boards where you can get dozens of people screaming at you simultaneously. Comments on religion, politics or Mac-vs.-Windows are always good bets. The talented troll sits back to enjoy the fireworks with a smirk, and never, ever responds to the responses.
Unfortunately, when it comes to running high visibility, public sites that attract Trolls and Pills - and yes, some public health and social change topics can do that - the amount of time that needs to be put into screening comments before they are publicly posted can be quite high. The Post reported that it was taking two full-time people to go though the comments on the blog in question. Now that may be the worse case scenario, but it is one of the hidden costs of doing business that people need to consider when advocating for using blogs with public commenting to augment their social marketing enterprise.
Technorati Tags: Blogging, Health Communication, Social Marketing
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