One of the great things about having a blog is that you get to control it. You can run it any way you want. Some bloggers are liberal and open hosts, allowing commenters free reign to insult other commenters and even themselves without being deleted or banned.
Others tolerate no dissent whatsoever. If your views stray in any way from the host’s, you’re banned.
I’m in the middle. I allow dissent and discussion, but I won’t tolerate personal attacks on myself or other commenters. As long as folks are civil, I don’t interfere. Usually.
I am Queen of My Domain and no one else’s. But what if someone insults me in a different kingdom? What control do I have over that? Keep reading.
I don’t usually visit so-called discussion boards because some are a bit too uncontrolled. Even if there’s a moderator, you often find vile and vicious words strewn throughout the “discussion.”
I found myself in one such board because someone had posted a link to my blog and it showed up in my referrers log. Against my better judgment, I decided to take a look. It was an anti-black conservatives thread, and the person who posted the link occasionally comments on my blog. I read several posts by someone who had to be in his teens or early twenties, at the most. Needless to say, this ranter hates black conservatives. Fine. Whatever. Free country.
The purpose of this post: While I can’t control anyone else’s blog or “discussion” board (and don’t want to), I want it widely known that if a commenter on my blog posts anything insulting or offensive or false about me on another blog or board and I find out about it, they will be banished from my territory. Under my rulership, the person can’t even access my site.
Unfortunately, the resourceful and determined can find ways around banning. That goes with the terrority of public web sites. Someone I banned months ago occasionally rears his ugly head, but as soon as I spot him, he’s gone until the next time.
The person who posted the link is quite civil and even-handed on my blog, which I appreciate. But I don’t understand why he/she would want to incite the anger of young, anonymous, unaccountable (and sometimes unstable) discussion board groupies against me. I don’t have the time or the inclination to figure it out. And I don’t want to.
Here’s some advice: If you want to trash me on another site and you want to continue commenting on my domain, don’t link to my URL, OK? Your discussion URL shows up on my referrers list.
Side note: A HaloScan user informed me that she gets error messages when trying to trackback to my posts. If you are a HaloScan user, please let me know if you’re having similar problems.
Rest easy, everybody!
