Posted by Orin Kerr:
Developing a Comment Culture:
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_01_25-2009_01_31.shtml#1233215010
In the last few ays, [1]Balkinization and [2]Above the Law have
introduced new comment policies. Balkinization is mostly turning
comments off, in light of the fact that its comment threads were
pretty much unreadable: Above the Law is hiding them a bit and taking
a somewhat more aggressive approach to moderation. Over at [3]CoOp,
Dan Solove comments:
It seems to me that different blog commenting cultures arise on
different blogs. I bet that the readership for Balkinization and
Concurring Opinions overlaps quite a bit, yet I have noticed that
the comments at Balkinization are much as Jack describes them [that
is, nasty and nonsubstantive]. Why have commenting cultures
developed so differently at different blogs? I don't really know
the answer, and it would be interesting to figure out why
commenting cultures develop in the ways that they do.
I suspect the explanation rests largely on the different moderation
policies at different blogs. If a blogger doesn't moderate comment
threads at all on a widely read blog, trolls realize they can do their
thing and actually reach a decent-sized audience. The trolls
eventually push out the more thoughtful people: You end up with a
mess, or, as Brian Leiter would put it, a "cess pool." In contrast, if
bloggers moderate their threads reasonably well, deleting irrelevant
or abusive comments -- and in some cases, participating in the comment
threads themseves -- then you end up with a shift in culture over
time. Readers begin to expect that the comment threads will be
reasonably good, or at least entertaining, and more thoughtful people
consider commenting themselves.
That's my guess as to what tends to happen, at least. Comment
moderation policies end up having a profound impact over time on who
comments, and different approaches either attract thoughtful
commenters or keep them away. My sense is that Balkinization threads
were lightly edited if not unedited altogether, with the bloggers
themselves generally not participating in comment threads: Over time
that made the comment threads unreadable.
References
1.
http://balkin.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-comments-policy-at-balkinization.html
2. http://abovethelaw.com/2009/01/atl_new_comment_policy.php
3. http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2009/01/the_death_of_bl.html
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