Joe's Blog Question

[ShardsofGlass]

I've been over to Joe's Blog, and I can't believe what is going on. People are tearing Ben Browder apart over there. A lot of the comments are personal -- not about his performance or about his character of Mitchell. People are talking about his ego and other things as if they can read his mind. I personally am apalled that these kinds of comments are allowed over here. Isn't it one of the forum rules to respect other people, both fans and those on the show?

So my question is, why is nothing being done to stop what's going on over on Joe's Blog? It's obvious that people are taking advantage of being anonymous to say really awful things that go way beyond criticism of a performance. I think it needs to stop, and I wish the mods would stop it!

[knocknashee]

I wonder if the people over there who are saying those things realise that, if they also post on these boards in the same session, a quick scan of the IP addresses of the offensive posts could be matched up with their accounts here..?

[uknesvuinng]

I've been over to Joe's Blog, and I can't believe what is going on. People are tearing Ben Browder apart over there. A lot of the comments are personal -- not about his performance or about his character of Mitchell. People are talking about his ego and other things as if they can read his mind. I personally am apalled that these kinds of comments are allowed over here. Isn't it one of the forum rules to respect other people, both fans and those on the show?

So my question is, why is nothing being done to stop what's going on over on Joe's Blog? It's obvious that people are taking advantage of being anonymous to say really awful things that go way beyond criticism of a performance. I think it needs to stop, and I wish the mods would stop it!

The comments are done through Blogger's comment system. I'd think they would be subject to Blogger's TOS, well, registered users anyway. Joe or the Mods could require registration for comments, but they'd still have to go through Blogger.

The best solution I could think of is some kind of blog support on vB, or maybe some kind of minimal, dynamically created forum thread that could be used as the comments thread for each post. Then it'd be so that commenters would have to have Gateworld Forum accounts to post. I'm not familiar with vB, but it wouldn't surprise me if such a feature is out there as an addon.

[Darren]

Comments and commentors at Joe's blog exist at Joe's discretion, as does the anonymous commenting option. It is not a part of the forum and is unmoderated, and makes no pretense of being moderated. It's offered "as is," with no warranty of any kind stated or implied. We look at the blog as Joe's property, and we're just providing the space and the eyeballs.

If someone goes to the effort of e-mailing me to point out a specific post, I will consider deleting it -- but only if it includes harsh profanity, vulgarity, threats, or the like. It's unmoderated, so people can be as mean and nasty as their character will allow.

I also can't do much about reports like "The comments are really getting out of hand," only to head over and discover that the latest post has in excess of 160 comments. It's unmoderated, and I don't have anywhere near the time to read every one of them and look for something so bad it should be removed from an unmoderated list of comments.

Have I mentioned the unmoderated part?

[knocknashee]

I did read some of them...and believe me Darren, you don't want to read all of them if the last 50 or so are anything to go by.

What disturbs me most, is that a good majority of those comments are coming from people who post here. What I actually find totally unbelievable is that people who stick ardently to these boards rules would actually go there and say such things, knowing it wouldn't be allowed here...

What can you do though? I didn't note much that would be modded...no swearing, just people suffering from 'Mitchell isn't O'Neill' syndrome... *shrugs*

[Kas]

Well, I'm learning to stay clear of them - it's a free for all frenzy. I'm sure that Joe will have the good sense to steer right away from the personal attacks rather than any constructive critisism.

What I hate is all this talk that the majority/everyone of fans hate Mitchell/Ben, he's not fitting in etc... Well, don't talk for me or many others please people. Look in the general threads here, the thunking threads, the episode threads, other boards besides this one... many of us are digging the character and the show as a whole. I'm sure that'll be noted and not just the comments of some posters running amok in an unmoderated, online blog.