I think a case could be made that it is. Check out the deteriorated discussion starting about here, give or take a few comments. No sharing of ideas, just sniping at other people and childish name-calling.
I say this out of love, since The Marmot's Hole comments section was once a revered place. Sure, it's nothing like Dave's ESL Café and probably never will be, but maybe we should bring back the comments sheriff. Where's Oranckay?
The posts themselves, for the most part, are still top notch. We just need more of them. Maybe then the sniping will stop.
... and water is wet... ;)
ReplyDeleteOut of control? They were never in control.
ReplyDeleteTrust me, as the administrator of said blog, I more than feel your pain. I know it's difficult, but the key is to look past the usual suspects and find the worthwhile discussions going on (yes, sometimes they do happen) under the train wreck.
Robert wrote:
ReplyDeleteOut of control? They were never in control.
I was thinking the same thing. And if I ever contributed to that, you have my humblest of apologies.
Trust me, as the administrator of said blog, I more than feel your pain. I know it's difficult, but the key is to look past the usual suspects and find the worthwhile discussions going on (yes, sometimes they do happen) under the train wreck.
I also tend to read past it, and I do so because there is a worthwhile discussion to be had here and there. Your comments section is still a place where I learn quite a few interesting things.
Nevertheless, I fear that new people with something to offer may be intimidated by the inmates in the asylum.
That's not my reason for not participating anymore, of course. My problem is that once I start getting my feet wet I'll dive right back in again and not get any real work done. It's very zen-like just watching it from the sidelines and not getting involved.
Oh, and thanks for (a) three links in one day and (b) not getting offended by this post.
Kushibo,
ReplyDeleteI agree that it's far out of control, but you've ironically isolated a rather tame thread.
It was tame, yes, but it was childish. Bear in mind there were only about eight or ten responses from the one I linked at the time I wrote the post. It was nearly devoid of interesting content but was a bunch of personalities calling each other names.
ReplyDeleteOr at least, that's what it seemed when I wrote that.
I didn't want to make my case with a particularly egregious example, but a typical one.
Maybe Kushibo's blog comments section can become a new place to mudsling instead? I still enjoy sending my students to Marmot, but the comments are sort of like reading debates on Wikipedia pages for Sui-Koguryo wars. Actually I still don't know how to comment on his page! Blissfully ignorant, I suppose. As someone who doesn't get a huge number of blog comments on my own site (kind of hoping to keep it that way) but who has been needled lately by some random nitwit about my cello playing on my YouTube channel, I have plenty of sympathy for Robert on this one. These things take a lot of time and it's the job of the administrator mainly to WRITE. Unless he's making so many won that he can afford to hire an underling to police the boards, which, I suppose, would be sort of like CCP or Cat Haz Cheezeburgers or whatever that site is that is located in Seattle (pays $9 an hour for comment moderators, currently hiring). My two cents, flame off!
ReplyDelete