The Active Rain gods and goddesses, in all their wisdom, must have thought this was a possibility, because they put the option there to delete a comment. As the originator of a post, you and I have the ability to just delete any comment at will. No jury trial, no witnesses, delete...poof, you're comment is tossed into the digital wastebasket. First amendment rights don't apply here.
This is an awesome responsibility and shouldn't be taken very lightly, especially if you want to succeed in your blogging efforts.
I don't believe for one minute that what I write is always correct. Believe me, the erasers on my pencils are worn down to a pretty small nub, and the backspace key on my keyboard is pretty shiny.
The reason I'm thinking about this at all is that I've seen comments on some of my posts, and others as well, that not only disagreed, but were disagreeable, in the manner of the comment. When a comment is intentionally confrontational in nature, I'm not sure it serves it's purpose any longer in the whole context of the post.
I understand having passion for a point of view but not at the expense of being civil, or at least, trying to be civil. Blogging, being a flat medium, can easily be taken out of context and misconstrued.
Posting is not done in a vacuum. What's written here is widely distributed on the web for all to see, including comments.
I have a very low threshold to pass when disagreeing with me, or any other commenter. All I'm looking for is respectful disagreement. If you can't word your comment in a respectful manner, than you've chosen to put your comment at risk of being deleted. Threatening someone is an automatic deletion. No wailing, no crying, no testimony, no appeal, gone.
So far I've never deleted any comments but have certainly thought about it on more than one occassion.
Richard Iarossi, REALTOR®
Long and Foster® Real Estate, Inc.
Crofton, MD 21114
410-451-6255 Office
443-995-9595 Cell
Web: www.RichSellsHomes.com
eMail: Rich@RichSellsHomes.com
Crofton MD Real Estate Specialist
Annapolis MD Real Estate Specialist
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