Why I Closed the Fat Threads

Posted on May 13, 2005 in Responsibility Site News

Some bloggers feel that they should never close down a thread. I differ. I close down threads when I feel that the conversation is a gate without a fence, swinging wildly around a solitary post. This is what happened with many of the fat thread articles. Too many people got emotional and abusive. When I look back, I am rather pleased with myself. I kept my cool through most of it, answered points for the most part or, more importantly, simply stated my own opinion.

This is the way that I usually handle conflict in other blogs: I state my ~disagreement~ ONCE and leave. I do not stick around hitting and hitting on the blogger. (In fact, I never once attacked Lauren for her post: I think she acted in good faith and, in the long run, acted well.) If I regret anything, it is that I didn’t just do that this time. I wasted my own time by expanding upon and explaining where I was coming from. Theoretically this should have made things better by allowing others to see the full measure of my feeling, but it did not. Because I have seen this same thing happen to various other people as well as myself before, I should have known: insanity is when you keep trying to do the same thing expecting different results.

I am not responsible for the feelings of those who feel that because I have removed their stage, because I had not given them “the last word” on my blog, that they have lost an opportunity to “set the record straight”. They have stated many times how they feel, both here and in general blogspace. If they want to keep stating it, they have their own blogs. This platform is closed.