Category: Weblogging

It would seem that some people think my anger and unhappiness over edits being made to my comments is overreaction. After all, they say, It’s Sam’s spot. What is my problem?

Funny. 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.

Have you all ever noticed that there is a group think and a group behavior aspect to weblogging? “Well, Shelley”, they say. “You should react, we demand that you react, but this way is too little, and that way is too much”, as if this whole thing was Goldilocks and the Three Behaviors.

I used to think any reaction was okay, as long as it’s honest. But it would seem that this has turned into a personal assessment of all my various faults. Well, that’s fair – I said I didn’t trust Sam because he edited my comments.

But then, I also don’t have to like it.

Just published newest Many-to-Many weblog posting. Unfortunately, no permalinks, and no comments. Ironic considering the topic…

If we all thought alike and agreed on most things, we’d all be pretty boring and would spend our time sitting around, exchanging daily epiphanies with each other. However, depending on the nature of The Bomb, your comment thread either excels to new heights of intelligence and insight, leading you to congratulate yourself on attracting such witty and urbane contributors; or your comments degenerate into a slugfest that would make the back alleys of your nearest Big City seem tame by comparison. Regardless, your comment thread most likely has now taken on a life of its own, one that’s not quite in your control anymore; and that’s a bit tough to take because, you say to yourself, you are the Writer of this Weblog. The Leader of this Little World. You are King or Queen of your Domain. Who are these people who just come on in and lay their thing in your space, without a by your leave?

Shit on a shingle, but what did we do to bring this down on ourselves?

I’m in the midst of trying to write my next essay for my guest stint at Many-to-Many. I was originally going to write an essay about weblogs such as Little Green Footballs followed by one about discussion lists such as MetaFilter, but I was sidetracked by an issue having to do with comments. So I find myself in the midst of last minute writing that isn’t necessarily easy. I’ll post a note here when I’m finished there.

In the meantime, Mike Golby wrote a very interesting essay about several of my recent postings. I strongly recommend you take a few minutes to enjoy it.

My first entry as guest weblogger has appeared at Corante’s Many to Many. A brief excerpt:

 

What a unique out of body experience. You can take the voice out of the body, but you can’t teach it manners.

Take a good long look at this rather frivolous first entry, because I can guarantee you that the other entries will not be light hearted, safely intellectual, or funny.

Too much about the genre of social software – the weblogs, file swapping, IM, discussion groups such as MetaFilter and Slashdot, user groups such as those enabled at Yahoo groups and Usenet, the collaborative environments, digital identities, and copyright freedoms – has been about the utopia we’re building with these new technologies. We make grand claims to ourselves as well as others about our replacing professional journalism, stopping wars, increasing both artistry and productivity, giving voice to the individual, finding truth, and ultimately, building communities.

However, as others have discovered in our past, when building ideal societies, there is no true utopia – there is only a fragile hope based on undiscovered lies.

It’s time, past time, to look at the ‘dark side’ of social software.