Salon.com is no HuffingtonPost.com

At Salon.com, a blogger can, at whim, delete any comment that he/she does not like. That's not a salon in my America but it might be one in Stalinist Russia, though.

This does not happen at Ariana Huffington's site. Sure, they can delete your comments if they are off topic, abusive, ad hominem, and a few other criteria. But those are site-specified rules not the whim of the blogger who is posting his opinion on a site that has full public access. I'm had stuff deleted on the HPost but I knew after it was deleted that I had gone BloggerPostal according to the rules of the site.

What's wrong with the salon.com methods? If we are told that we can comment on a posting/blog, we are tempted to read the whole thing knowing that we can disagree in public with the writer. We take the time to read it and to compose an opinion that was at variance with the blogger. We feel that, in some small way, we can temper the opinions in a balanced way. But instead, the blogger decides that it's a bit too negative for his puerile ego to bare and he zaps you into oblivion. Now, let's say a disinterested party goes and reads the blog and sees nothing but positive comments. Is there not an obvious danger that that party gets fed so much spin that, lacking any immediately available contrarian opinions, he/she gets a one-sided view that can't help but nest in the person's mind indefinitely--the reader has become the victim of an unfair influence by the blogger. Because there is a 50/50 chance of the blogger being wrong in the eyes of society at large, all views should be aired at the first publication if they meet the terms of use. If I don't like the terms, I can go elsewhere.

I like the US News & World Report site. It's not crowded, and you can post relatively civil comments to stories on the day's major issues. What else can you ask for in a blogging/enews site?

Of course, if Salon.com thinks this despotism is in keeping with its Mission Statement then I apologize for saying it's on a lower road to the Huffington post.

The ego of these bloggers is so nano that--I bet--they can only blog for sites that allow such absolute power. If they wanted, they could easily ask us to resubmit a modification because it violated the rule against X but that would involve respecting another person's opinion. Salon.com should study HuffingtonPost.com as the latter has one standard for the entire site.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

New Jersey's Department of Personnel

I'm 57 years old. That alone makes it very hard to penetrate the job market. However, NJDOP has a website where you can browse available jobs and submit an application along with $15. I did that and I waited and waited for the process to reach the stage where the actual hiring agency would give out interviews for the position. 2 months into that last stage (the DOP said that the hiring agency had 90 days in which to interview candidates), I got anxious and decided to call the municipality. They were supposed to pick from the top 3 candidates but they told me in no uncertain terms that they were going to give it to "the person who was already doing the job." When I questioned the ethics and legality of their decision, I was told that they really hadn't finalized things. This person was hoping that I would go away but, sadly, NJ is a state where ageism and/or crony-ism is condoned. Stay tuned, I'm waiting to see if I get an interview and if I don't get the job,...
Read more

Size and other Characteristics Matter in Trumpville

Why was Comey fired? He towered over Trump, that's why. It's a no-no. That other dude that knew his job well was tall, and I suspect the administration knew all the time of his spousal abuse history but it only became a problem for him when his height got on the president's nerve, OUT. This height obsession is a conflation of the President's own tallness and NY real estate where the bigger the edifice, the bigger your status. Look at whom he holds on to--Sessions, plenty of reason to fire him but he's all so diminutive that Mr. Trump feels he might be charged with child abuse if he were to act against him; besides, Sesssions takes it on the chin and will forever hold the distinct "honor" of being the first mainstream Republican to embrace the President's candidacy. This represents two pluses. The short and tough-looking General Mattis stays while the bigger and better looking Tillerson goes. Mustaches: if you have one, you're out but a whit...
Read more

I Doubt My Mother-in-Law will ever get Covid Even at 90+

You see, she has never been a germaphobe and that means her immune system is tip top. When you're not a germaphobe, you subject yourself to all manner of germs that immunize you against similar organisms. My German mother-in-law cleans her home meticulously but she has no compunction with sticking her hands into the sewer and unclogging it by hand. "But Midge, I have a snake for that. Ah, what's the big deal, she says to me." Never argue with your mother-in-law. When your mother tells you to wash your hands before supper, is she doing you a disfavor? I think so. In countries with many parasites or in our present pandemic, you want to wash them off your hands but, if not, you want lots and lots of germs to keep your immune system on guard. This brings me to the factoid that Women are less likely to get or die from Covid. Duh, obviously, who subject themselves to more germs as a parent? The one who plays in the parlor with the kids or the one who cleans their diaper...
Read more