About comments
About a week ago Weeks Ringle - from Funquilts, a regular contributor here at Whipup, who has been giving us quilt lovers free advice for over a year now, wrote a post about copyright which seemed to get a lot of people in a bit of a tangle. Many of the comments were not very nice … there were lots of issues raised but as one commenter said I’m confused by the hostility in some of the comments. I would like to take this opportunity to remind readers about the value of comments - please take a moment to read our comment policy - I am going to be harder from now on about rudeness - and will be editing comments I feel cross the line.
The most relevent here are:
- Make the tone of your message clear - Sarcasm, in-jokes and exaggerations can easily be taken the wrong way in a public forum. Use emoticons or additional information to communicate the spirit of your message.
- Own your comment - Anonymous commenting, while sometimes necessary, can be seen as cowardly. Build your identity and own your words by placing your name and weblog address on your comments wherever possible.
- Be courteous - be respectful and objective at all times.
- Don’t post when you’re angry, upset, drunk or emotional - There’s no taking back a published blog comment - once you post, it’s there for everyone to see and for Google to cache.
edited to add:
we are absolutely fine with comments that are controversial or disagree with the post - by all means tell us what you think - we are not looking for a big love fest of niceness - differences of opinion are encouraged but personal attacks are not-
September 4th, 2007 at 10:57 am
Nicely said.
September 4th, 2007 at 6:40 pm
As a brand new blogger, I greatly appreciate this thoughtful and well-timed posting. I try hard to be positive and encouraging when I post to someone’s blog. If I don’t have something nice to say, then I don’t say it at all. And, to be honest, I don’t always get the little humorous and often inexplicable comments folks make on blogs–often flies right over my head but I keep reading them and learning.
Thank you.
September 4th, 2007 at 8:27 pm
You know, you probably get more readers returning to the site when there is a little controversy or thought-provoking discussion here, rather than all dissent being stifled in the name of “niceness.” You might want to think twice before clamping down on people who post a disagreeing opinion.
Weeks has indeed been giving wonderful free advice, but she has also received free advertisement for her own business by her participation in this site. Nothing wrong with that–she does fabulous work, and it’s great for it to become more widely known among the handcraft community.
If you put your thoughts out into a public sphere, you should be able to handle comments and differing opinions on them. The blogging/web 2.0 community is partly about dialogue, not just one-sided pronouncements. From dialogue and disagreement can come exciting ideas and a way to reach agreement eventually.
September 5th, 2007 at 4:56 am
I am a regular reader of Whip Up and saw the post by Weeks Ringle more than once. I didn’t see the comments so I can’t speak to the tone of them, but I must admit that I found the tone of Weeks’ post rather hostile, so I’m not surprised she received comments in the same vain.
Weeks was absolutely right about copyright infringement and had every right to say what she did. I too, am a quilter who makes a living from my work, and have had people borrow, steal, and use my designs without paying for them or without my permission. I have had the same experience as Weeks, but would certainly phrase my response differently. The last sentence of her post was bitter, and I’m sure turned off many readers.
Much of the crafting and quilting community prides itself on a relational basis of like-minded souls. I’m afraid that Weeks’ post did much to harm that community in the blogging world. Crafters and quilters who steal designs are certainly in the wrong; how we handle that infringement says much about us as individuals and business people.
September 5th, 2007 at 6:48 am
we are absolutely fine with comments that are controversial or disagree with the post - and of course if a contributor posts something controversial then by all means tell us what you think - we are not looking for a big love fest of niceness - but when comments get downright nasty - that is unnecessary -
September 5th, 2007 at 9:40 am
I agree that some of the combativeness was sparked by the tone of the post: she said that people who simply asked if a pattern was available were trying to take money from her daughter’s education.
September 5th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
I’ve been following this discussion from Weeks’ original post and I find myself agreeing with many of the sometimes contradictory views expressed. While there are always a few unscrupulous and selfish people out there I think most of the problem Weeks has is based on people’s ignorance about what she does and what it is worth. By that I don’t mean that people are stupid, just that the world of professional designing and quilting sits outside most people’s experience so they don’t know to be more respectful (as is the case for many small professional fields).
And perhaps the repetitious nature of Weeks’ experience with people who don’t know better has led her to feeling a bit frustrated by it and understandably feeling disrespected. Those who don’t know better feel unjustly accused by her expectations that they should respect something they don’t necessarily understand.
It is a shame that comments can be felt as hurtful because the discussion is really worthwhile. The vexed issues of where inspiration becomes copying and where the pleasure of crafting becomes a commercial enterprise are only likely to be clarified, understood, thrashed out and illuminated by discussion.
I suspect that the defensiveness and personal tones come precisely from our lack of shared understanding and shows that we need more, not less expression because it is one thing to expect respect for different points of view, it is another to expect respect for something people don’t know about.
September 5th, 2007 at 5:08 pm
I do agree with Maria in that I also found Weeks’ post to have quite a hostile tone to it - and while I understand the issue, I didn’t appreciate the authoritarian way in which it was written.
I wonder does an administrator look over authors posts before they are posted, or perhaps give advice to authors before they post? Or are authors just able to write and post whatever they are thinking at the time?
September 5th, 2007 at 6:37 pm
thanks for this post on commenting. it really is a bummer when grown-ups say things like “Grow up and get on with your own work” in a discussion. that strikes me as very negative and certainly uncalled for. it’s certainly not very constructive which is what the discussion was supposed to be. i felt like 95% of the comments, while most of them dissenting, were quite above board and did their best to get their point across without being mean. too bad there were a few bad apples in there but they didn’t rot the whole barrel.
September 6th, 2007 at 6:50 am
Hum……..I have posted the same comment TWICE (once yesterday and once today) on the original post and it stills doesn’t appear. I doubt it’s “censorship” as it is not really negative but I wonder how or why it gets “eaten up”. I would appreciate if I could get an answer as I feel like my freedom of speech is getting limited;) I’m sure it must something in the system… Anyway, keep up the good work at whipup, always a source of inspiration.
September 6th, 2007 at 9:05 am
I’m also a regular reader to the Whip Up blog. I think Weeks’ article and the follow on comments have been excellent food for thought. Personally, I would like to see more articles on these types of topics. These issues are timely, relevant and clearly strike a chord with many readers. I hope potential authors will not shy away for writing something that could be percieved as controversial because of reader comments. I definitely think a reader’s emotional perception can sometimes prevent them from seeing the big picture. Ex. It’s not what she said….but how she said it. Contributors keep up the good work and we’ll keep coming back.
September 6th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
Hi christina - I am sorry - I have no idea about your comment disappearing - but I will keep a look out for it.
and cassie - no I do not censor authors posts - I trust my authors to post relevant and informative posts - however all authors are welcome to ask advice as to appropriateness - guest contributors are of course edited by me first.
and to everyone else - I too felt that only 5% of the comments of the previous post under discussion were mean spirited but on the whole I felt it to be a healthy and interesting discussion and very glad to have it on here. I am sorry of course that Weeks was offended by the 5% and while I will be more vigilant in watching out for the that 5% I will not be censoring comments that are constructive and dissenting - only those that are personal attacks and mean in spirit.
And thank you everyone for your participation in these sorts of issues - please let me know of any topics you would like to see discussed here.
September 7th, 2007 at 2:20 am
ok, I tried posting both on the original comment and here (so a fourth and fifth time) and it doesn’t work, my comment gets “eaten up”. Thought today would be my lucky day as it’s my 25th birthday but it just doesn’t work:( So after 2 days of trying to post my comment; I think I will just give up.
All the best,
Christina
September 8th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
Christina, could it be something as simple as having your caps lock or num lock on?
September 8th, 2007 at 2:06 pm
I don’t find anything hostile in the tone of Weeks’ post.
I’m curious, is it cultural difference? English, American, Australian, Canadian, New Zeland and many other English speakers, are we percieving it as slightly different according to our own cultural mores?
September 14th, 2007 at 3:05 am
Forgive me for chiming in late, but I enjoyed the post under discussion as well as all the comments. I thought that everyone was doing a great job of discussing these contentious issues with courtesy and clarity. If indeed the problem is that the original poster was hurt by comments that made up no more than 5% of the comments, I think it’s a shame that the editors felt the need to chide commenters. The craft arena has a lot of genuinely nice people, but there’s also a culture of unrelenting positivism that doesn’t accept any criticism or disagreement at all. I appreciate it when people are honest as well as polite, and whipup could be a great space for those kind of discussions.