Jerk-Net: Activated

201005111111 Jerk Net: Activated

This blog has been getting around lately — links on Boing Boing, Reddit, Digg, Kottke, and so on — with a corresponding increase in commenting. Without wanting to play Dean Wormer here, I am scrutinizing the comments a bit more closely, and personal attacks, trolling and general asshatery will not be tolerated. I will PARTICULARLY not tolerate jerkishness in obituary threads because they are often read by family members and believe me, you’ll thank me later.

That said, keep the good chatter coming! And to all you lurkers out there, feel free to bust out if you are so moved.

Comments

  1. I am truly amazed and often disgusted at what some people will write. I believe in free speech but it seems that some folks hide behind the concept as a means to insult people. They make comments that they would not have the stones to make face to face.

    I always sign my name to any comments I make and encourage others to do so.

    Dan Veltre
    Dewey’s Comic City
    Madison, NJ

  2. Kevin Hynes says:

    I don’t remember where I heard about The Beat, but I’ve been a lurker for a while and finally started posting little bits here and there. Love the site, great time waster at work!

  3. Greg Terrill says:

    Yeah I too am a lurker, but I am dedicated lurker. This seemed like the right time to post my first post. That’s all I got, keep up the good work.

  4. I see this kind of infantile behavior on every site now and it drives me crazy. I can’t even read Mania or io9. It is simply because posters don’t have the stones that the faceless and nameless insults occur.

    It has started to happen on my site as well and I’ve spent a great deal of energy playing snark cop (hence why there are almost no comments).

    Not every comment is going to be wine and roses, or should be – but comments devoted to pure unfounded hate no place anywhere.

    In solidarity, I am signing my name to comments made (I’ve used the company name, but a name behind the company is a good idea); no guts, no glory. And like Dan, encourage others to do so as well:

    Lance Roger Axt
    AudioComics, LLC

  5. Oh yeah, and Heidi: keep up the great work.

    Lance Roger Axt
    AudioComics, LLC

  6. Dale Gonsalves says:

    Keep up the good work Heidi.

    The internet has given people the ability to cowardly hide behind a keyboard while being outlandish boors.

    I regularly visit here but rarely post.

  7. Christian says:

    I’ve always taken the old adage that you should never say anything on the internet you wouldn’t say to someones face.

    Me? I’m an inconsiderate jerk. But I’m an inconsiderate jerk in real life too. And it’s that consistency that I think people appreciate.

  8. Sometimes you gotta lay down the law. Good point, Heidi.

  9. Now you crack down.

  10. Army of Dorkness says:

    Did I miss something? Did someone say something inappropriate about Frank Frazetta or is it just preemptive?

  11. Jim Caldwell says:

    general asshatery will not be tolerated

    Does this mean that specific or major asshattery will be tolerated?

  12. Brian K. Morris says:

    The sheer cowardice of snarking while hiding behind a pen name has sickened me for years. Hence, I always sign my real name because it keeps me honest and reminds me that there are real people involved in the conversation. So my heartiest support, Heidi, in maintaining one of the classiest comic spots on the web!

    And there should be a special place in the Infernal Pits for people who snark at obits. There are no words for how far down the Evolutionary Scale those “people” have decended.

  13. (To be very vague and non specific about it,) I DID read a very strange and inappropriate post here recently. It greatly disturbed me when I read it. It has been removed, and on behalf of myself and, I am sure, many others, I thank you for that. Onward.

  14. S. Chapman says:

    For the record, I’d like to ask– is it acceptable to provide a serious critical response to a post that one does not agree with? I often get the feeling that regardless of whether a well-crafted critical response is put forth, in the hope of initiating a dialogue, it is viewed as negative, and therefore not appropriate. I was very dismayed to see posted on Mr. Alcott’s own blog, a fragment of a sentence from a response that I provided, which was being critical of his essay on the 1966 Batman film. It was unfair and taken out of context. I am also dismayed to see those who wish to post positive feedback, somehow being put off by critical feedback. It is one thing to discourage name-calling and inappropriate half-baked commentary– I agree that it does not have it’s place, but I think there is a place on blogging for well-thought out responses be they positive or negative. That is the idea of a forum, after all, unlike those controlled “town hall meetings” that politicians hold. And rather than Mr. Alcott cherry-picking a few words from my response, a measured response on his part could have gotten the ball rolling on a terrific blog conversation concerning comics-film criticism. I think it is nice to have real feedback tossed around, rather than slavish fan soundbites that simply say “great” at the drop of a pin.

  15. Hey S.:

    I do appreciate and welcome criticism and differing opinions in the comments. I don’t like name calling, and pro-baiting, which an awful lot of people on the internet mistake for opinion.

    I reread your original comment and it was valid, but I think a lot of the criticism of the column come down to “You should not have done A!” when Todd’s goal was never to do A, but rather to do B. Since only a few people got what B was, there wasn’t much to argue.

    Now granted, I’ve been pals with Todd and an admirer of his work for some 15 years, so perhaps, knowing him and his approach as I do, I got what he was trying to do immediately. Obviously a lot of readers didn’t, and judging by the response all that was missing was renaming him “Todd Lemon” to totally piss people off.

    I think things will become much clearer with subsequent columns.

  16. For the record, I did not present a fragment of S.’s sentence on my blog, nor was it taken out of context. I presented his entire sentence, and the sentence I presented was, in fact, his topic sentence. I don’t know how I could be more fair than that.

    That said, S.’s desire for a more complete overview of the cultural import of 1966’s Batman is perfectly reasonable. But, as The Beat mentions above, it’s just not really what I do.

Speak Your Mind

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