Toward a Troll-Free FIC Blog
August 30th, 2007 by Peter
Doug’s comment in a previous thread is so good it deserves a post of its own:
Peter, I greatly respect both you (and Brian when he previously ran this blog) for being lenient and not censoring the bilge from the dialouge, or for that matter, not separating the chaffe from the wheat, and I understand why you do it; to expose the intolerance, hypocrisy and vitriol from (some people) on the other side of our issues. But I wonder if the weeds possibly too often choke the plants in the garden? I beleive David simply posted his rant out of anger in an isolated instance, but several posters on this blog, and you know who the usual suspects are, are little more than gutless cowards, too often very diliberately post insults, ridicule and utter drivel, partly because their blithering immature, and even hateful, nasty idiots, and partly because they intend to stifle speech, rather than promote the farce they hypocritically perceive as “tolerance.” I’ve been back and forth on this blog, but I wonder how many other “Myra’s” and “Doug’s” are out there, reading, but not sharing because too many of the overgrown kids want to play with the real adults? I’m not in any way referring to dissent here, much to the contrary, dissent, and for that matter, even spirited (but appropriate) passion is both necesary and healthy to any wholesome dialouge, but there is a difference between dissent and (forgive the repetition, but it fits), “restroom stall grafiti.” I don’t even object to sarcastic humor, which frankly, I actually enjoy, but there is a difference between that and directing inane and malicious commenatry toward other bloggers in an obvious attempt to ridicule or silence them. I think if anything, genuine dissent probably draws more people in, but most people who have anything of worth to say, be it pro or con, will not bother to do so in an environment full of ridicule and idiotic childish drivel.
He nails it as to why we’ve allowed “the chaff” on this blog. Unfortunately, he’s also right about the weeds choking the wheat. The “trolls”–as they’re known in blogging parlance–have left many of you “out there reading, but not sharing” because they’ve created “an environment full of ridicule and idiotic childish drivel.” I posted rules to prevent this from happening. But it’s clear that in order to encourage more “Myras” and “Dougs”–and fewer trolls–to post comments on FIC Blog, those rules will have to be more strictly enforced.
If you are someone who has refrained from posting comments on FIC Blog because of the pro same-sex “marriage” trolls, please know that things will be different and that we want your contributions. Intelligent dissent from our opponents is welcomed, but the sort of things Doug mentions above will no longer be allowed.
We are also putting an end to lame attempts to get us off topic. Just in the last several hours we had one troll react to this thread by pretending it was about abortion-clinic workers sexually abusing patients and another troll react to this thread with the usual “I thought FIC wasn’t religious” stuff. Lame. Truly lame.
Again, if you are someone who did not post–or stopped posting–comments because of the trolls, please reconsider. Your contributions are welcomed and desired. And I pledge to you that I will work to make FIC Blog as troll-free as possible.
Thank you, Peter!! (And for everything you do and have done– along with Brian in the past– to promote and protect a family and moral values friendly Connecticut.)
I have not posted recently (or been keeping up with the blog as much), but it is not just because of the ranting and troll types–although they are extremely irritating at times. (And I agree that the rules should be enforced.)
Bottom line, our challenge here, and everywhere to protect the faith and traditional family values–is that those who care the most are also those most occupied (should I say consumed? at least time-wise) with the daily responsibilities of caring for their own children. Let me point out, here, to the Davids (and all those insisting upon their homosexual agenda) that it is those CHILDREN, being raised as future productive, tax-paying citizens, who are going to be paying your social security benefits during your retirement years. So quit trying to distract and waste the time of those wonderful people such as Doug and Myra–and others who might comment in a CIVIL discussion.