Política de comentarios

Junio, 28, 2012
Política de comentarios, blog Cosmic Variance de Sean Carroll

Did you know that there are some blogs out there on the internet that don’t have comments at all? Amazing, but true. To us here at Cosmic Variance, comments are a crucial part of the joy of blogging, and we couldn’t imagine doing without them. Nevertheless, we get occasional visitors who don’t always “get” the whole “commenting thing,” at least as we understand and encourage it. [...]

Deep Underlying Axioms

Just like Euclid’s geometry, our comment policy is a rigorous formal system, in which an array of impressive results may be derived from just a few simple axioms. We’ll start with the Prime Directive of Blogging:

Axiom 1: This blog exists for the enjoyment of these bloggers.

This is the foremost principle to keep in mind when you are wondering why certain comments pass muster while others do not. Our blog is not a public service. We don’t get paid for it. [Update: now that we're at Discover, we do get paid a tiny amount.] It’s not our real job. It’s just a hobby that we choose to pursue, as others pursue fly fishing or watching TV. The blog is not here for you. You do not pay any fee, in return for which you have the right to expect a certain level of service. The only obligation that we as bloggers have is — well, we don’t have any obligations at all, actually. We could decide tomorrow to devote all future posts to our favorite varieties of cheese, or to elaborately detailed discussions of our continuing health problems. Whatever we want.

The purpose of the blog is to amuse us. That’s it! Anything that does not amuse us is contrary to the spirit of the blog. Admittedly, we do hope that the blog is occasionally informative or entertaining to others, as well. But ultimately, the blog is Not About You.

This one principle should really be enough to figure out everything that needs to be figured out about comments, and the blog concept more generally. But just to be absolutely metaphysically complete, we’ll make explicit two other axioms that are generally true things about life. First:

Axiom 2: It’s a big Internet out there.

Sometimes people will express the opinion that this particular web site does not quite measure up to their own personal standards. Perhaps it occasionally wanders into topics about which they have no interest, or contrariwise doesn’t devote enough air time to their pet theories. People who have had nothing to do with the creation or maintenance of this site nevertheless feel that they have the right to influence what is or is not included, or that those who do run the site have an obligation to give free rein to the visitors. Such is the Way of the Internet, as it always has been since the ancient Babylonians first began jotting helpful notes on each other’s cuneiform tablets.

So, here’s the thing: this is not the only blog on the internet. One could imagine a sensible and compelling argument that the internet as a whole should organized as a zone of free and unfettered speech. But that doesn’t mean that every individual blog is such a free-speech zone. You say that the world really needs to know more about your personal Theory of Everything that will revolutionize physics? Blogging is an excellent medium to get the word out, we agree. The good news is that you don’t have to do it via comments here — you can start your own blog for free, at sites like blogspot.com. Don’t let us hold you back! Or, you say, you are unhappy with some things we post? You don’t have to read this blog! You can read other blogs. We have a pretty good page of links that includes a whole bunch of blogs, or you could just go to Technoratiand start searching. Don’t find precisely what you are looking for? Go back a few sentences, and be inspired to start your own blog!

Really that should make everything pretty clear, but just in case there is lingering uncertainty,

Axiom 3: Life is not fair.

Your Mom told you this a long time ago, but perhaps you have forgotten. We will have reason to refer back to this axiom throughout this helpful guide.

Fundamental Theorem of Commenting

The consequences of the above axioms may be concisely summarized in the following Fundamental Theorem:

Be polite, reasonable, and constructive, or your comment might be deleted.

Given the above, it should be clear that we (think that we) have the right to delete comments that don’t conform to our strict-but-fair standards. And we will sometimes do so. What we will typically not do is to email the commenter with an apologetic explanation for the deletion, nor will we engage in elaborate comment-thread debates about whether such-and-such a comment is appropriate. We’ll just delete it and move on with our lives. That turns out to be a logical consequence of Axiom #1 above. We enjoy putting posts up on the blog, and occasionally participating in the comment threads. Stuff like making sure the site doesn’t crash, and coaxing obstreperous commenters into better behavior? Not so much. It needs to be done, but we generally minimize our effort along those lines.

You might think that just deleting comments leads to additional hassle that isn’t worth the trouble. But, experience shows, not true. When we have started deleting impolite or off-topic comments, the threads have generally brightened up almost instantly. Other blogs enjoy wallowing in free-wheeling chaos, or putting great effort into gentle moderation techniques. That’s why there is more than one blog, as per Axiom #2. Diversity is important.

Meanwhile, sometimes there will appear impolite/unreasonable/destructive comments that we will not delete. Perhaps because we are busy, or can’t be bothered, or because our judgment differs from yours. See Axiom #3 above.

We realize there may be some who find such a policy to be mean-spirited and repressive, yet who are either too technophobic or simply too busy with other important things to go about setting up their own blogs, or who feel that the setup and maintenance of a space in which they can freely opine is the obligation of the CV bloggers, not of themselves. Axiom #2 to the rescue! Here is an entire blog dedicated to those ideas that are just too dangerous or controversial or tiresome to be tolerated at CV: Cosmic Variance is Censoring Me. We feel confident that no comments will be deleted from that blog.