My oil painting or yours?
Feministe's Piny maps the derailment of this thread at Pandagon today. As the topic of the derailed thread was the same one I posted on a couple of days ago, I was especially interested. I started writing a comment on Piny's post but then decided to write some more here. And actually that's what I want to write about: the difference between commenting on someone else's blog or taking your point to your own and the significance of comments to me in general.
When I was writing my MA dissertation last year I thought about comments a lot, but largely from a positive point of view - what they could add to the text, how they could make blogs extremely collaborative texts, especially when the blogger and commenter develop a relationship. Once published, comments become an integral part of the blog text and in this way blogs can become collectively written texts even when ostensibly maintained by a single author. Coming from an academia, where collaboration can often be discouraged in favour of solitary research and individual accomplishment (think, for example of the PhD thesis), this opportunity for collaboration felt valuable. I also feel/felt that comments allow for a certain level of accountability and transparency when reader's additions are visible and attributable and bloggers can be taken to task as well as praised for their words.
Earlier this month, Daniel at Suitcasing wrote
Commenter ilyka writes in response to Piny
My current take on this - well, I certainly still believe that the commenting facility is a very important part of why I love blogs so much and why I think they are texts that work for me as a feminist. And, to be honest, a lot of what I love about blogs in general has to do with their disconnection from the conventions and standards (and hierarchies) of other writing technologies/genres. But, despite my commitment to freedom of speech and my special love for how the comments/blog thing works, I do think that Piny's frustration and ilyka's proposed solution are important to think about. When is it appropriate to write a comment on someone's blog and when is it better to take the point to your own blog? Should we be more careful about what we do with the 'oil paintings' of others? I do think that when comments are spam or simply abusive that moderation is definitely necessary but I wonder if it is vital to the integrity of blog-ness that comments have minimal moderation otherwise?
When I was writing my MA dissertation last year I thought about comments a lot, but largely from a positive point of view - what they could add to the text, how they could make blogs extremely collaborative texts, especially when the blogger and commenter develop a relationship. Once published, comments become an integral part of the blog text and in this way blogs can become collectively written texts even when ostensibly maintained by a single author. Coming from an academia, where collaboration can often be discouraged in favour of solitary research and individual accomplishment (think, for example of the PhD thesis), this opportunity for collaboration felt valuable. I also feel/felt that comments allow for a certain level of accountability and transparency when reader's additions are visible and attributable and bloggers can be taken to task as well as praised for their words.
Earlier this month, Daniel at Suitcasing wrote
You have no idea what a commenter might, earnestly or jokingly, decide to add to your oil painting.Reading Piny's post this morning, I thought back to Daniel's analogy, and again it seemed to be a good one. Reevaluating my position I started to think about how comments might not only add to but actually both derail a discussion and essentially change a text.
Commenter ilyka writes in response to Piny
Dear Anitfeminists: please start your own blogs immediately with my blessing. It won't cost you a dime.and
P.S And if you've already got a blog? STAY there.
My current take on this - well, I certainly still believe that the commenting facility is a very important part of why I love blogs so much and why I think they are texts that work for me as a feminist. And, to be honest, a lot of what I love about blogs in general has to do with their disconnection from the conventions and standards (and hierarchies) of other writing technologies/genres. But, despite my commitment to freedom of speech and my special love for how the comments/blog thing works, I do think that Piny's frustration and ilyka's proposed solution are important to think about. When is it appropriate to write a comment on someone's blog and when is it better to take the point to your own blog? Should we be more careful about what we do with the 'oil paintings' of others? I do think that when comments are spam or simply abusive that moderation is definitely necessary but I wonder if it is vital to the integrity of blog-ness that comments have minimal moderation otherwise?
1 Comments:
Very interesting post!
I find comments to be a very loaded business, and while I agree that they are a powerful positive force, they can be really negative too. There are comments that seem to undermine the whole post's point, and there are commenters who seem to regularly make comments of this nature. Forever, your carefully written review of "The English Patient" will have a vague statement of disagreement stuck on the bottom.
Additionally, I worry that if I am skirting, deliberately, the edges of something politically correct in order to say something that I hope will be interesting, if someone comments "You're a perv!" or "Right on! I like tight butts too!", this may tip readers' view of the piece into something cruder than it "really was", or make one aspect of it seem the pivotal aspect.
Then there is the question of how the original blogger replies to commenters, and again power becomes a big issue. I find it hard to have long discussions with people in my comments. Frequently if I make a reply to the comments to a post, that seems to signal the end of comments on that post - perhaps I get defensive and try to "protect" my original argument.
Someone who regularly has great discussions in his blog is Toshuo
Post a Comment
<< Home