That guy can sure hold a grudge. "I was only able to stop these idiots from commenting on my blog by stopping everyone from commenting on my blog, which is regrettable, but it's worth the sacrifice, because some of these people really were complete fucking idiots. I know, because they disagreed with me."
I remember that blog post. Instead of responding to the comments in his blog post (a la PG), he removed comments from his blog and started calling the posters names. The people posting on the site were trying to point out that his arguments were specious, and not very well thought out.
Several people argued with him on Reddit, including Avi Bryant (creator of Seaside), Slava Pestov (creator of the Factor programming language). He called them names and then deleted his comments later.
True, but sometimes I think people forget that not every conversation has to be a formal debate. One of the huge hassles of running a blog is that when someone thinks you're wrong, they think it's their right to enter into a formalized duel of wits. And if the poster refuses to participate? The harasser declares victory of the most complete kind. But what people seem to forget is that the burden of proof is not the obligation to argue.
I don't like blogs with comments either. Usually I want to say what I want to say, and if you disagree you can email me. I may or may not entertain further discussion, but I certainly don't feel compelled to give my site over as a venue to people who then organize specious an mean-spirited conversation. They can do that on their blogs, out of my tunnel vision.
> One of the huge hassles of running a blog is that when someone thinks you're wrong, they think it's their right to enter into a formalized duel of wits.
Well, the key is to not care what these people think. You are the person contributing valuable insight the the world. The commenter is just some troll with time to kill because he has nothing interesting to do.
I am very anti-censorship, and I never delete comments from my blog. This is amusing because if you search for my book, one of the top results is an unsigned comment on my blog saying how bad it is. I've thought about deleting it, but I don't care enough. The comment basically says "I didn't bother to read the book, but I didn't like it." There is no need to debate that. It is what it is.
It's nice when people like you, but it's also amusing when you find out that you've annoyed someone so much that they come to your own website to attack you. If you aren't pissing someone off, you're not doing anything worthwhile. :)
Anytime you have an opinion, people implicitly have the right to disagree. What's the point of just yelling into a vacuum?
By ignoring everyone, you're not just isolating your precious feelings from the trolls, you're also missing out on a fair amount of insightful feedback.
Yeah. OK. So, I'm bringing this whole irony thing. It's kind of ironic to say somebody else is small-minded because they have opinions about other people.
Honestly, don't you fuckers have startups to build? I'm not interested in your opinions. Just die.
Right on, brother. Today's word is "irony". Money quote from this amazingly boring rant: "It's important to realize there are tons of people who just don't care. Be one of those people."
> All this ridiculous programmer-celebrity blogging echo-chamber bullshit results in very little software being built
or how about, "blogging results in very little software being built".. i never understand how anyone has time to actually code when all they do is write blog entries about writing code...
This is a silly line of reasoning. By your own argument, you shouldn't have made your own argument, as it probably has not resulted in any code being written.
Here is my comment. If you don't dig it, don't read it! Fucking DUH. It's your life. It's your time. Choose it how you spend to choose it, that reflects on YOU, not me.
I understand your argument - news.ycombinator, and all crowd sources / aggregated news sites don't up-mod independent thinking by definition.
But from another users POV, even your posts can be seen as trolling and flame bait; you voice your opinion harshly without contributing to the overall discussion.
I mean, if you included the comments that led up to your outburst, you were just as much trolling as I was when I commented about you being down-modded.
Let me make it clear that, aggregated news sites - like you said - encourage trolls, and keep independent new ideas low on the upcoming/new stories. But this is not because trolls down-mod independent thinking, it's just that there is too many trolls UP-modding noise. The trolls themselves don't actively down-mod good/independent ideas.
So we are all left with what you call the "Cory Doctorow Problem".
But any comment (and I stress comment) thats down-modded below a certain point is usually spam, trolling or flamebait anyway, and I can usually rest assured skimming or skipping entirely that post because the crowd have deemed that post not worth my time.
Each individual has their own "Cory Doctorow Problem", as in your case; (many) other comments which you have made have interesting opinion and/or contain food for thought - that contribute to the discussion - are not down-modded (albeit, not up-modded either as if an opinion is genuinely independent not many people agree with it at that point).
As you said, Aggregated news sites get worse over time.
In my opinion, the easiest way to fix them is to create a private, invite only aggregated news site, with respected members of a community. If you keep the community the right size, the members will filter out trolls, and completely (as humanly possible), eradicate most noise.
I've detracted from my main point though, so I'll stop typing now.
I remember that blog post. Instead of responding to the comments in his blog post (a la PG), he removed comments from his blog and started calling the posters names. The people posting on the site were trying to point out that his arguments were specious, and not very well thought out.
Several people argued with him on Reddit, including Avi Bryant (creator of Seaside), Slava Pestov (creator of the Factor programming language). He called them names and then deleted his comments later.
There's lot of irony in his latest post.