A reader emails: "Wrote a thing to add to the weird culture thread, decided not to send it. Felt like fun to write it, tho."

The weird culture thread is here.

I can't blame people for hesitating to comment here. It's not just the personal woofing that's daunting, it's the tangents and highjacks and cul-de-sacs and derails into odd little personal realities that can make commenting feel like wasted effort. 

But I don't want my threads to read like a back issue of Pravda, either (bonus on the truncated Rhino thread: the single published comment gets its only fact wrong).

Anyway, if people are reading and thinking and maybe writing for themselves, even if we don't get to see their work, I guess that's a win?

Comments

[polifrog]

If people think, that's a win. Its a bigger win to get the gold, though.

I get the tangents and cul-de-sacs but what is personal woofing?

But highjacks and personal realities? With the diminished presence of Fec and Roch that has become a near non issue.

[Account Deleted]

What I still can't figure out is what is the point of coming on an erudite blog where people try and discuss ideas with facts and data and continually hurling personal insults and coded invective? Why not start your own blog? Why not spend the time to write an article for a website or publication you enjoy reading?

And if you have a blog why not stick to it instead of merely clouding others with your own personal vendetta against your self-described "online nemesis"?

I guess its been about two years now that I just ignore comments and threads dominated by one or two commenters. I added three more last year. Can't tell you how many replies I've written and deleted saying "what's the point" over that time period.

[Ed Cone]

Jeff, I have wondered over the years why people write the stuff they write. Not disagreements or counterpoints or arguments or even the occasional zinger, but the real derails and drama.

Some possible explanations:

-- Poorly written or thought-out original posts
-- Provocation (real or imagined) in posts or comments
-- Not great communicators
-- Not great at slowing down to read before responding (I have tried to improve my skills on this one)
-- Take everything very personally
-- Not great at getting jokes (amplified by the limitations of text)
-- Locked into worldview, not interested in discussion
-- Assume everyone is having the conversation they are having
-- Assume they can read minds and so can others
-- Conditioned by cable/radio shout-fests, think this is how it's done
-- Limited self-awareness
-- Deliberate attempt to disrupt (Segretti-ism)
-- Deliberate attempt to disrupt (vandalism)

[David Hoggard]

Many are combinations of your very fine list, Ed. And like Jeff, it frustrates me when some posters bent is to either belittle others, call people names or - most prevalently - attack the proprietor instead of the ideas/discussion the proprietor is bringing forth.

I've taken to looking at the authorship first and then skipping all comments from certain posters. Too predictable and tiresome.

[polifrog]

One to add to the list, Ed.

The deliberate ignoring of others who seek clarification (amplified by the limits of text)

So, what is personal woofing?

[Ed Cone]

Trash-talking, insults, ad hominem, etc.

Commenters who feel their words get ignored might look to the quality (in terms of content and readability) of their comments. As Hoggard said, regular readers develop a kind of junk mail folder.

One of the great disappointments of the internet for some folks is that the ability to write for a wide audience does not translate to actually gaining an audience.

[polifrog]

Thanks, Ed.

[Ian McDowell]

As I've said before, I don't understand the pathological need of some (not all) on the right to dogpile liberal or "progressive" blogs, as I don't see the same thing going in the other direction. Maybe I've not looked at their blogs often enough, but I can't recall ever seeing a bunch of liberals (especially anonymouse ones) writing angry comment after angry comment after angry comment on Sam Spagnola, Robert Grenier, or even Joe Guarigno's blogs, certainly not to the degree that Sam and Grenier post here.

[Ed Cone]

Also:

-- Bored
-- Lonely
-- Like to argue for argument's sake

[Fec]

Thanks for the link. For the umteenth time, I apologize for being an asshole. I don't pretend to understand you. Nevertheless, I do not bear you ill will. I am a simple man who attempts to confront those with whom I disagree head on, without sophistication or artifice.

[Lex]

Truly delusional people will just live in their own realities, untroubled by any evidence if their delusions. But people with borderline personality disorder perceive such evidence as an almost existential threat and respond accordingly.