10 Questions Blog Commenters Should But Don’t Ask
John Scalzi knows that you want to be a better commenter because, “You’re a fine upstanding human being, not some feculent jackass with a keyboard, an internet connection and a blistering sense of personal inferiority that is indistinguishable from common sociopathy.”
To help achieve your objective, he suggests asking yourself ten questions:
1. Do I actually have anything to say?
2. Is what I have to say actually on topic?
3. Does what I write actually stay on topic?
4. If I’m making an argument, do I actually know how to make an argument?
5. If I’m making assertions, can what I say be backed up by actual fact?
6. If I’m refuting an assertion made by others, can what I say be backed up by fact?
7. Am I approaching this subject like a thoughtful human being, or like a particularly stupid fan?
8. Am I being an asshole to others?
9. Do I want to have a conversation or do I want to win the thread?
10. Do I know when I’m done?
He fleshes each of those ten out quite nicely; I commend the piece to you in its entirety since, after all, you don’t want to be that guy.
About James Joyner
Would you say that 47% of commenters are failing to live up to these standards?
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I’d say they feel like they were entitled to comment. You can’t do anything for them, Michael.
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Obamas dream has come true I thought this was America I’ll say what I please you socialist
Ayn Rand 2012
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11. Is this at least kinda funny?
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1. No
2. Maybe?
3. Maybe?
4. Circular?
5. Anecdotes?
6. Anecdotes?
7. …..
8. Obviously
9. FTW
10. Goto 1
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@Anderson:
That’s an alternative if you’re failing the first 10 questions…
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@David M: Right you are!
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Scalzi is excellent.
And I suspect even the best of us occasionally fail to meet those criteria (#8 springs to mind…). They are still good to keep in mind.
Of course, on Scalzi’s blog, people are subject to the Mallet of Loving Correction.
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I have a policy against meta-commenting ;-)
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One of the funniest posts/comment sets of all time.
I think Michael Reynolds and Anderson tie for the win.
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@john personna: I thought you never meta-comment you didn’t like…..
responding to.
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@Anderson:
The Rule of Funny applies double to blog comments.
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If I answer “no” to all of the above, does that mean I win something for consistency?
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11-) Are writing properly, since you are writing in a language that is not your native tongue?
12-) Are you using foreign examples that most of fellow commenters have no idea about?
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@Andre Kenji:
Just so you know, I love 78% of your comments.
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@rodney dill:
Give this man a badump-chah and close the thread!
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1. Do I actually have anything to say?
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@mattb: FWIW, one of Rodney’s +1′s is mine
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But What Does Hitler Think About the Secret Video?
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@rodney dill:
Public: Call for Dill to be permanently banned for bringing the lowest form of humor into this blog.
Private: Curse myself for not thinking of it first.
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::yawn::
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@MarkedMan: My exact thoughts when someone beats me to a pun.
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From Twitter:
Jeff Greenfield @greenfield64
Q. for my fellow journos: is it common to see 2,500 comments–but after the first two, none of them have a thing to do with what you wrote?
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Scalzi needs to modify “blog commenters” to include initial blog posts
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