So the past few days, the troll factor has definitely dipped. We did
have the one incident with the Wolfson thread, but I think that was
basically an invasion. Can't do much about that. One thing I'd like to
encourage: If you're arguing with someone in a thread and like five
posts in you see it's only you and that person, and neither of you are
budging, you might consider getting a room. It's not so bad when the
argument is at least about the topic at hand, but drawn-out acts of
thread-jacking just aren't fun.
I'm getting the feeling--and I
believe someone said as much--that I'm inheriting some old holdover
beefs from Matt's comments section. I really don't want any part of
that. As I've said, I strongly believe that a good community improves a
blog tremendously. You can scroll
through the threads and find people disagreeing all over the place, but
it doesn't have to descend into the personal. Sorry if I'm coming off
like a Nanny. I just hate going into blogs and reading a comment
section that looks like its been taken over by ten-year olds.
One
last thing--I'm not ignoring the request for a specific comment policy.
The truth is, I just don't have one yet. I'm learning on the job
here--at my old site it was basically just me and a few internet
friends. This is, as I've said before, a house party. I'm not exactly
sure what, specifically, should be allowed and what shouldn't. I know
it when I see it, but not really before. As the weeks go on, I'll get a
better handle and then post some guidelines. Meantime, please bear with
me.
UPDATE: One thing that will get you deleted is using a fake e-mail. I'm slow, but I have picked up on that one. Do the right thing guys.
The Beautiful Struggle: A Father, Two Sons, and an Unlikely Road to Manhood 
Copyright © 2009 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
Barry Ritholtz has some good thoughts on comments policies over at his economics/markets blog The Big Picture: http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/05/comments-trolls.html
If your really going to replace Yglesias, you need a heck of a lot more speling errors.
(And for the irony impaired, those are intentional.)
Deleted. Please don't start.
T.
Sorry about reposting sometimes. Apparently, when my browser reloads a page it also reposts my last comment. Doesn't seem to happen at other sites but I've noticed it here. From now on I'll post then browse away and then come back.
For the record this email address is a real email address. I use it as my commenting email. I've dialogued with the aforementioned Barry Ritholtz with it when it got marked as spam on his site.
Also, I think you'd enjoy Barry's site.
Apologies if I have been less than civil to anyone.
Will try to do better in the future.
Cheers
If you get a significant number of migrants from Matt's blog, there's one or two people in particular who tend to derail discussions. Most everyone is fairly well-behaved, even when I want to punch them through the Internet.
"One last thing--I'm not ignoring the request for a specific comment policy. The truth is, I just don't have one yet. I'm learning on the job here--at my old site it was basically just me and a few internet friends. This is, as I've said before, a house party. I'm not exactly sure what, specifically, should be allowed and what shouldn't. I know it when I see it, but not really before. As the weeks go on, I'll get a better handle and then post some guidelines."
Perhaps you should be careful with that. Some people have convincingly argued that posting clear, specific rules about what is or isn't allowed in a comments section or forum or whatever is an invitation to trolls to game the system and try to be as obnoxious and disruptive as possible without technically breaking the rules.
Perhaps it's better if you say up front that you have guidelines but reserve the right to follow your own judgment and common sense rather than these guidelines in individual cases.
(Yes, that system can theorethically lead to pretty childish and petty decisions, but you don't seem childish or petty.)
Seems like a reasonable approach to comments, Ta-Nehesi. The one thing I'd be careful about is that you don't discourage dissenting opinions. When comment threads become echo chambers, they are less interesting.
Maintaining standards of civility is important too. Some think that, because they disagree with another commenter's views, they have license to call that commenter whatever names they chose.
Echoing Ralph, if people find the site moderation childish and petty they can go elsewhere. If it's truly petty, the comments section will degenerate to a bunch of people agreeing with each other about how right they are, but if it's petty in the "to disagree with my comments is to be petty" sense, then pruning out the more aggressive and annoying weeds will help encourage the nasturtiums of commenting to put down roots. (A gardening metaphor; I'm sure there's an apt sports metaphor too.)
Pity there's no way to have Matt pack up his trolls and take them away, perhaps accidentally dropping them in Goldfarb's blog.
I used a fake email for years despite consistently using the same pseudonym and trying to adhere to some reasonable standards of decorum, because at least in the early days some blogs posted the commenters' email addresses, and I didn't need that.
I since wised up and got an extra gmail account that I very rarely check, and I have never noticed email resulting from blog comments there. But you might want to change the form so that it clearly states that email addresses will not be published.
"for if Barack Obama Ivy League grad, brilliant orator, and most importantly unencumbered by racial paranoia is a black man--and seemingly quite comfortable with it--who am I? What is "whiteness" in that context?"
I for one would like to see comments about the original post not the "Nanny" comment....
I think many of us would be happy to be seen as ourselves and have race be more like hair color or presence of dimples etc. Do you really think people care about their "whiteness"? Perhaps we take it for granted, being in the majority, but I don't think I would miss it. I think it is the kind of barrier that this blog and Obama's candidacy is dissolving--I hope!
Frankly, I don't think you should articulate a specific policy. People here are adults and most likely know when they're not acting like it. Setting down specific rules just encourages people to try and get around their spirit while adhering to their letter.
Put the onus on the commenters to police our own behavior. I think your "if you were at a party I was hosting a behaving like that, I'd ask you to leave" provides sufficient guidance.
I have a deeply evil suggestion you might be able to get your support techies to implement. On my site I can move comments between threads. If I get a real stupid one, I move it to an open thread. No censorship, yet no distractions.
Mind you, I DO censor...I have a devowelling filter for the real idiots. Moving them out of the trolled thread into, say, a daily thread name "Village Idiot" is more housekeeping than censorship, and between them it keeps discussion pretty rational.
I'm not so sure if it is the Atlantic-style of blogging where quantity gets preference over quality that has also changed the nature of the comments.
When there were fewer posts, that seemed to me more thoughtful and prepared, there was a reflection of that in the comments - fewer and more thoughtful.
Since the move, the blogging and the commenting appear to both be ever-increasingly more frequent and more shallow. I hope the trend reverses.
I think ignoring the trolls is best advice. I do respect people who disagree but with logic not name calling. As one commenter noted though reading an echo chamber is boring - one of reasons I've tired of Kos despite being mostly sympathetic. I'd rather risk the trolls.
TNC has some great views which really make me think and Atlaantic is privileged to have him on board.
I think ignoring the trolls is best advice. I do respect people who disagree but with logic not name calling. As one commenter noted though reading an echo chamber is boring - one of reasons I've tired of Kos despite being mostly sympathetic. I'd rather risk the trolls.
TNC has some great views which really make me think and Atlaantic is privileged to have him on board.
I think ignoring the trolls is best advice. I do respect people who disagree but with logic not name calling. As one commenter noted though reading an echo chamber is boring - one of reasons I've tired of Kos despite being mostly sympathetic. I'd rather risk the trolls.
TNC has some great views which really make me think and Atlaantic is privileged to have him on board.
Until the very last vestiges of the current Stasi-like apparatus are swept out of Washington, I will continue to use a fake email and Pseudonym when posting on political sites.
This comment has been sent by The Puzzled One using his mailinator disposable e-mail address, which is technically not fake. Test test.