Burningbird On Fire

Posted on June 6, 2003 in Blogging

BurningBird has a problem: people are jumping all over him her because he’s she’s complaining that another blogger edited his her comments.

I thought they were my words. And it does give me cause to wonder about how much people stand by their own words, if they would allow edits to them so casually. Perhaps I should be more stunned at the complacent attitude. Wait a second, I am stunned. That’s where that overreaction thing comes in.

I’d be stunned, too, BB. I’m not above deleting obnoxious comments (though I think it is more effective to ban their butts and let the comments stand to show how stupid they are), but editing them or marking them up in ways to highlight portions you agree or disagree with?

Fair discussion requires that remarks be unedited except as requested by the writer. Many years ago, when I was in high school, I wrote a letter about our school newspaper putting a front page story honoring our losing football coach. In the story, the coach was quoted as putting the blame on his players. I suggested that a man of integrity should shoulder the blame himself. My letter was not printed in the next issue, but a rebuttal was posted — naming me, pulling quotes out of context, and accusing me of saying things that I did not.

My parents were never ones to stand up to authority, but that experience solidified certain principles. Foremost: Rebuttal must appear in the context of the message. Sam Ruby’s marking of Burningbird’s remarks as “flamebait” violates this principle. He has, himself, indulged in flaming. Furthermore, he’s chickened out. Being without words for a reply, Sam merely casts red paint on Burningbird. If he does not like the remarks, he should, as Burningbird suggests, delete the comments.

It is nothing but a cheap shot to mark up or alter comments. For one thing, it can do much more to heat up a battle than to cool it down. For another, a tired blog owner may misread a comment. By marking such as a “flame”, he can bring undeserved grief on a thoughtful blogger. I believe that a blog owner should post clear rules about what kind of content is acceptable in his comments. If a blogger violates the rules, the one moral action a blog owner can take is to delete the comment. He or she may take the additional step of site-banning the offenders. Altering the comments or re-formatting them to invite ridicule is not fair play.

If a blogger is being an ass, then her/his own words should damn him. This is all Burningbird asks: either leave my words alone or delete them entirely if you find them offensive. I agree.

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Update: Once again the lack of pheremones and a photograph (I’m a sensuous person) have led me to misidentify a blogger’s gender. Burningbird is a SHE. Given the nature of the row between her and Sam Ruby, I hope that she and others who read this article as edited will find it tangentially funny.