A well-known blogger told what is needed in order to create a cozy atmosphere for welcome guests in his LiveJournal. Recommendations for novice bloggers.
Hello! My name is Fritz, I am thirty-three years old and every day I erase objectionable comments in my LJ. How did I come to this life? I will try to explain with a short list of frequently asked questions.
Q: Why, in general, wash something and ban someone?
A: Imagine yourself as the owner of a small salon where cultured people gather every day to have a couple of cups of tea and discuss various interesting topics.
Your salon is quite democratic, admission is free, there is no face control in the hallway. Anyone who is curious from the street can look at your light in order to publicly express their valuable opinion.
Now imagine that a foul-smelling bum is piled into your intelligent circle of friends, who spews obscene curses, grabs the ladies by the asses and, in general, prevents you and your guests from enjoying communication.
The question is - from what kind of elks should you let this degraded bastard spoil your holiday?
V.: But other bloggers don't ban anyone, they are bolder
A: Firstly, I'm not sure what can be called a brave person who is afraid to drive out of his house a homeless person who is spoiling in the middle of the living room just because friends may doubt his kindness.
Secondly, you can't just snap your fingers like that and create a cozy atmosphere in your blog. To do this, you need to hoe and hoe, ban and ban, wash and wash … many bloggers are just too lazy to do this.
In any case, I am not teaching anyone to live. If a blogger thinks his blog will be better without moderation, that's his right. And, since we are talking about other bloggers, I have a request for you.
Several well-known people in our narrow circles filed an alternative vote for the best blogger of 2011. Alexey Navalny and Prostitute Kat are in the lead in the voting, they go head to head and one of them will surely win.
So that's it. Please vote for Katerina. At least for reasons of support for novice writers.
V.: But there was not a single swear word in the commentary, I just called you a stupid idiot
О.: I do not ban for mat. Even though I frown at obscene words in written speech, for mate - even addressed to me - I don't bother anyone. I ban for personal transitions.
I have an unspoken agreement with the readers: every day I propose a certain topic for discussion and we discuss it together. And if the topic of the post is, say, "principles of moderation in the blogosphere," then readers want to see a discussion of the principles of moderation in the blogosphere, and not a discussion of the personal qualities or appearance of Fritz Morgen.
Q: You banned me for asking you uncomfortable questions about Putin
A: I banned you for asking me questions about Putin in a post about robots. Back to the comparison with the secular salon.
Imagine a man dressed in a rumpled suit comes to your poetry evening and, looking around nervously, starts offering Citibank credit cards, campaigning against United Russia, or advertising Kirby vacuum cleaners.
The question is, why put up with a spammer? In the nineteenth century, such servants lowered the stairs with the help of wet rags and red-hot boots. In the twenty-first century, they act more humanely - they carefully apply a spammer with a Banhammer.
Q: Why then don't you ban Mr. Sh., Who can be very intemperate on the tongue?
О.: Unfortunately, I cannot forbid my readers to call each other different bad words. More precisely, I probably can, but then I have to moderate my blog for several hours a day … and I don't have those few hours.
Nevertheless, when I see that the comments of some emotional caballero contain too many insults, I still click on the red cross to the right of his name.
By the way, this also applies to all meaningless comments - such as "pervonah", "nonsense", "nonsense", "did not read", "plus one" and so on. Of course, I respect the bloggers' right to shit in the comments. Nevertheless, I believe that shit should not be in cultural blogs, but in specially designated places. Readers have the right not to waste their time flipping through verbal rubbish.
Q: Why then don't you ban anonymous users?
A: Because Anonymous is the elite of the Internet. If I ban anonymous, a lot of great, interesting comments will never be posted on my blog.
I always remember that moderation is for readers, not readers for moderation.
Q: What is the point in all this aesthetics? Why do you care so much about the beauty in the comments? Who do you want to look beautiful in front of?
A: I am interested in smart people, the elite of the Internet. And smart people, in turn, are interested in normal, civilized communication, during which if someone pours mud on someone, he does it with humor and culture.
Look, for contrast, at the blog of the new ambassador of the United States, who was sent to Russia to stage a color revolution with us. It seems that a serious person made a serious post that deserves serious discussion … And what did he get in the end? Two thousand cursing comments. I personally will not poke around in which, since I am stupidly sorry to waste my time on this. I will quote a few typical remarks:
“Well hello bitch. I hope your ass will burst from trying to make a revolution here."
“What a sweetheart! Have you brought the money for grants?"
“Mr. Ambassador, do not pay attention to the idiots from the Russian cattle, you need to feel sorry for them. Good luck".
"US Ambassador to the Russian Federation"
“By the way, who is the last one for grants? I do not live by lies, I shake hands, I adore Novodvorskaya!"
“Mr. Ambassador, you will pay for the plundered Libya and Iraq. Blood."
"Selling homeland."
"Welcome to Russia, my lord."
"Suitcase, Air Terminal, Washington."
No, you know me, I have absolutely no sympathy for the American ambassador. Actually, I'm even glad for his embarrassment - the harder it is for him in Russia, the better. If you are in a mood, convey from me a wish to the ambassador for a tailwind to your hunchbacked back … In general, as vyacheslav_f very correctly noted in the comments of cuamckuykot, if our “dissenters” throw Americans 50 million dollars, they will become national heroes like Khoja Nasreddin.
Nevertheless, the example of the ambassador clearly shows that it is absolutely impossible to seriously discuss any hot topics in the absence of moderation.
Q: Why don't you ban trolls?
A: Well, why not a bath … some - a bath. Those who interfere with communication.
Here's an example of a typical unnecessary trolling. Find in a post with a thousand or two comments any question that I have not answered. And write under it: "aha, Fritz, you have nothing to answer to this question."
It turns out a beautiful divorce: either I waste my time and answer a boring question for me, or I sign my own wrong on a question that may be important to me.
This kind of trolling is not necessary for me, for such trolling I am a bathhouse.
If the troll is thin, smart and has a sense of humor … well, decent trolls, in my opinion, only decorate a serious conversation.
Q: Do you have too many rules?
A: There is actually only one rule. Behave in a civilized manner so as not to interfere with other people.
If you think that this rule needs to be deciphered … well, in my profile, the reasons for the ban are detailed in some detail.
Q: What do you recommend for novice bloggers?
A: I would recommend mentally getting into the shoes of my reader and thinking about what kind of society it will be more interesting for him to be in. And try to protect your readers from the society of those whom they do not want to see as interlocutors.
A blog is still not a newspaper or a TV show. This is, first of all, a platform for discussions. Which, I believe, should be comfortable and well-groomed.
