Because there is so much going on and it is all happening so fast, my wife has granted me limited blogging privileges in spite of the fact that this is Sunday.This special emergency status may not be repeated during coming weekends, which I am supposed to spend with my family and not my computer.
Based on reader discussion there are a few things I should clarify.
It is correct that bloggers at Huffington Post do not get paid and that Arianna gets paid a lot. This is, I have to admit, pure genius.
It is also correct that both HuffPo and bloggers can not only delete replies they don't like, but they can also edit (!) them. HuffPo is very slow in "approving" new replies, so when this goes fast it is usually the blogger who approves them.
Some bloggers only approves positive replies, others approve all of them. As one reader on HuffPo pointed out I was one of the latter ones. I figured what made the blogging format so unique and fun was different opinions, even nasty ones. Let's face it. Your replies are often more fun to read than the blog . . . Many bloggers have not understood that or have too fragile an ego to allow negative comments.
Conflict always sells and is interesting to read, but since HuffPo continues to delete replies to their blogs about the HuffPo Troll Scandal, they are in trouble. This is what one reader wrote in a private e-mail: "The blog-o-sphere, or whatever you prefer to call it, is eccentric in that it demands honesty to command an audience. HuffPo is not being honest right now and that will deter a portion of their readership."
I will continue my policy of not censoring any comments on this blog. HuffPo censors you--come here and tell us about it. Soon others will follow.
But the fact that HuffPo is censoring is not surprising. One thing I was told during my "firing" from HuffPo was that "It is not necessarily in HuffPo's best interest to have investigative blogs about HuffPo."
That's when I realized it was over for me and HuffPo.
7 comments:
Dr. Rost,
As you've mentioned already, "conflict always sells and is interesting to read", but it really goes both ways.
There are many (like myself) that can't wish for more (one of the reason why I'd always took an interest in Partisan attacks as well as dirty Campaigns), but there are also those that gets sick enough already (the ones that hates trolls as well as Partisan attacks in politics).
Because of this, it's important for a blog to decide which management style they'd want to aim for.
They could go with a hands-off style where all opinions are accepted (the trolls? let the other readers bury them...). They could also go with the Bush's-press-conference style, with hostile and/or idiotic questions censored right ahead (and no trolls, of course).
The trouble with HuffPo is that they're not consistent enough with the comments. On one hand, they'd censor all hostile things directed at certain issues, on the other hand, they're not doing anything to the comments in certain areas... this creates a feeling of readers being subjected to double standard, and threatens to alienates BOTH types of readers.
Oh, and Dr. Rost... You might want to dig up a bit on the management style of Japan's "2ch"... While it is a virtually unknown place to Americans/Europeans, it is one of the biggest public forum in the Eastern Asia area.
While I admit, it's not really a blog, but it funtions a lot like one (in my opinion). Just a suggestion.
Oh, and on a side note, it seems that JP stopped allowing any more comments to appear altogether... I guess he can't stand more pain to allow them to flow through!
Oh, and Dr. Rost... You might want to dig up a bit on the management style of Japan's "2ch"...
But for the love of God, don't go anywere NEAR "4ch" if you value your sanity.
I'm repeating a comment here that I had added to an earlier post you made. It seems more appropriate here.
I was unaware of all the controversy surrounding your blogging experiences at HuffPo. But clearly you are correct when you say that replies are edited or deleted to shape the discussion.
Here is a link to my recent experience at HuffPo: the Wizard, fkap: An Open Letter to John Seery
Anonymous said...
They are censoring anything on Israel because, the Zionists know the jig is up thats obvious.
Israel and the Zionists can't hide or play the blame game now that they've ruined our country, via neocon intervention.
Those losers are all the same now, just like the trolls such as returnofdrevil2, Al Rogers, Nan Ellen of the Daily "KOS" propaganda press.
6/25/2006
Very much agree with the above.. My HPCensoringBigTime Username was just banned at Huffingtonpost.com for posting on pages 1 and 2 of the comments at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/06/24/excia-aide-reveals-new-d_n_23738.html about the Zionist war for Israel agenda and the Mearsheimer/Walt paper on the pro-Israel lobby segment which aired on C-SPAN's 'Washington Journal' program this past Friday..
Abraham Foxman (of the ADL) was hammered hard by the caller (a lady with the Brit accent calling from London) on C-SPAN's 'Washington Journal' this morning as she mentioned the USS Liberty attack/cover-up (http://www.ussliberty.org) and Paul Findley's 'There Dare to Speak Out' book and Jim Bamford's 'A Pretext for War' book as well (both the Mearsheimer/Walt and Abraham Foxman segments can be viewed online via the links at the following URL):
http://www.c-span.org/videoarchives.asp?CatCodePairs=Series,WJE&ArchiveDays=30
Here is the tiny URL for the above one:
http://tinyurl.com/dl5na
Additional at following URLs about how MSNBC's Keith Olbermann dissed the Mearsheimer/Walt paper:
MSNBC's Olbermann Disses Mearsheimer and Walt Critique:
http://kurtnimmo.com/?p=412
http://www.thornwalker.com/ditch/stopcollection.htm#james_morris
http://nomorewarforisrael.blogspot.com
I got banned again minutes after posting the following at Huffingtonpost.com via http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/06/25/dem-senator-now-it-tur_n_23773.html and other blog entries there (incredible censorship still going on as mentioned prior):
JINSA/PNAC Neocon Richard Perle: Why Did Bush Blink on Iran?:
http://www.warwithoutend.co.uk/zone0/viewtopic.php?t=54827
http://nomorewarforisrael.blogspot.com
If you don't censor this spamming idiot, people will quit reading here too. The spam takes up a lot more room in the comment window on Blogger than at HuffPost.
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