Anyway, I still allow comments ... feel free to use (or abuse) but remember Adrian's point ...
So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. Have nothing to do with foolish, ignorant controversies; you know that they breed quarrels. And the Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will. (1 Timothy 2:22-26)
Technorati Tags: blogging
10 comments:
I think it's a shame that Adrian equates disagreement with him to quarrelsomeness. He seems to think that it's ok for him to post controversial material as long as he doesn't give people the opportunity to respond to him publicly.
I think his best reason for shutting down comments is how much time it takes up for him. I, like you, don't have that problem! One of my favorite parts of blogging is interacting with different people in the comments, but then, I'm a mostly house-bound woman with not as much opportunity to engage with diverse people...hopefully that won't be true always.
charity - i missed the point somewhere. i took adrian's comments at face value - dealing with large volumes of conflicting comments quickly becomes overwhelming and not always value adding ... i didn't perceive this was a reaction to a specific issue but ...
Too often multi-millionaire NBA players are annoyed at signing fan autographs. Likewise mega-movie-stars.
Pastors long ago gave up making those time-consuming visitations in the homes of their parishioners. And now apparently also need to turn off their comments, email & cell-phones so they can get their work done.
Sorry, I'm not so sure..
Just my opinion, but I'm not sure it's an actual blog if there's no interaction. Comments seem to go hand in hand with blogs. Otherwise it's just a series of online articles under the name of a blog. I mean what's the difference? For years since the middle nineties, people posted their opinions about this or that. But with the advent of real blogging, the conversation again. The comments of my readers have allowed me to rethink my positions before and change my mind. I'd hate to lock myself up in an ivory tower where I couldn't hear the voices of others in response to what I've said.
If Adrian feels it takes up too much time to manage the comments, maybe he's too closely engaged. I usually respond to most folks on my blog, but occasionally on a heated subject, I'm willing to sit back and let others discuss it. I don't have to counter everyone's disagreement. I have a feeling Adrian simply couldn't sit back and let it go.
I don't monitor the comments on my blog in the sense that I have to give approval as to whether or not they get posted. They get posted automatically. In four years, I've only had to remove a handful of posts because they went over the line.
I enjoy Adrian's blog, and I have respect for him, but somewhere deep, I believe there's an insecurity that will now have to manifest itself elsewhere.
I always find it interesting which posts get comments and which do not. It's typically the opposite of what I expected. This one certainly has surprised me.
Anyway, all good points. For me, I identified with the weariness I sensed in Adrian as he tried to grapple with those that disagreed with him. Whether via blog or otherwise, I find life too consumed with argument rather than edification.
There are varying degrees of argument and some of it is needed/healthy ... I'm simply relating to how it can be wearying.
But - this blog is a small fish and thank you all for your comments ... I didn't even know I had this many readers.
:-)
I would suggest that not allowing blog comments is unscriptural because it implies that the author is refusing to be accountable or accept correction, even of errors of fact. For more on this, see my post Do not read Adrian's blog any more.
While I'm sure it occurs more than I experience, most correcting looks like bickering and I have only seen a very small percentage where the blogger changed their view ... most of my interaction leads me to think that the majority of bloggers are after popularity and do not give criticism much respect.
I may be way off ... feel free to correct me.
Oh how I get amused at how people overmagnify the "importance" of blogs. And now controversy swirls aroung "To comment or not to comment, that 'tis the question". Much of the blogasphere is akin to professional wrestling, entertaining but not real.
Relax guys, there are plenty of comments to go around!
rick - you are a blog heretic in addition to several other things that i will not mention here ...
:-)
Post a Comment