Friday, August 1, 2014

Lakeside story elicits ugly commentary


Blogger rethinks policy on reader comments


By Bryan Tagas

Our recent posting on the SEC shutdown of Lakeside Capital Management has had higher readership than any story we've ever reported, with over 2,200 page views to date.  The posting has also resulted in a higher-than-normal volume of reader comments on the Madison Park Blogger website.  Unfortunately, some of the commentary is scurrilous. Specifically, unwarranted personal attacks have been made on the family of Lakeside's owner, Dennis Daugs, all of them anonymously.

This low level of discourse has prompted one horrified MPB reader to challenge me to enforce a minimum standard for reader commentary on blog postings.  While Daugs may be fair game, she correctly points out that his family is not. I've always taken the view that readers of this blog should have an open forum to say what they think, even if they wish to remain anonymous.  But because this privilege is now being abused by some, I agree that a standard of behavior for commentators should be enforced: no more ad hominem attacks. In plain English that means inappropriate or irrelevant commentary, such as statements about the supposed physical or personality characteristics of people who are not even the subject of the blog posting, will be removed from the site. This rule applies retroactively to the reader comments on the Lakeside story.

[The Peter Steiner cartoon, shown above, is from the New Yorker magazine. It's a famous take from the 1990's on the freedom the internet provides.  But with freedom comes responsibility.  Cartoon used without permission.]

28 comments:

  1. Headline should read: "Lakeside Story Elicits Ugly Commentary and it Takes Blogger 2 Weeks to Suss it Out!"

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dude! This guy has a full-time job- he does this as a service to his/my community. In other words, if you think you can do better, I'd send him an email offering to help, rather than attacking his attempt to contribute.

      Delete
    2. Explain how it is "service to the community" to create a public forum to attack the family of a person cited in an article? If the same comments were submitted to any other reputable website or blog site, it would not have made it past the perfunctory vetting they all have. I have watched the MPB repeatedly ignore snide personal attacks on people featured in bis blog but this has gone too far with this article. If he is not willing to audit and assess the comments, he is little more than a tacit bully.

      Delete
  2. So your saying, I can't say Dennis is a asshole?

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    Replies
    1. Did you read the post? You can totally say that- it says that you can't attack his wife and kids. Which really, if you were actually trying to contribute to the conversation, why would you?

      Delete
  3. Denny-
    The word asshole (often arsehole in British and Australian English), is a vulgarism to describe the anus, and often used pejoratively to refer to people.

    Credit- Wikipedia

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you for posting this and getting the haters, and truly mean people to just stop. Pick on Mr Daugs but leave family alone. I was beginning to wonder why you would have a blog with such hateful comments and mean spirited neighbors making the cruelest of comments. I applaud the woman that approached you courageously - and I thank you again for shutting down the ugliest side of humanity!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hey if he burned you hard you'd feel the same.

      This guy sucks

      Delete
  5. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    1. You are douche-bag. Don't take that as a personal attack - just my personal thought and opinion. Dennis' kids are of an age that they can access the internet so while no one has name called them directly, the viscous attacks on their parents will have far reaching consequences. The MP Blogger did little more than re-hash info READILY available on the Seattle Times website. Unlike the Seattle Times, who has standards for commentary, the Blogger turned a blind eye to nasty, bitchy commentary that has NOTHING TO DO WITH THE ARTICLE. I don't think any one commenting on this disputes the facts of the case. Some of us, however, rise above petty attacks on people not even named in it.

      Delete
    2. "Viscous" attacks would be sticky or gooey, as by glue or maple syrup. Maybe appropriate in this case, but ungrammatical.

      Delete
  6. Ugh- that made no sense whatsoever.
    Go re read your college study journals
    And pat yourself on your back you smart ass. You sound like you are writing from the red onion bar lonely and in need .....
    Go home ok......

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hey whatever happened to that missing airplane?

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  8. Hahahaha. I'm a douche bag! Hahaha yo mama so fat, when she was pregnant with you, no one knew!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Don't you have an STC basketball game to play?

      Delete
  9. I think you have a couple of viable options here:

    1) Remove "Madison Park" from your name. Intended, or not, it implies some sort of official capacity, or position, and I don't think it is appropriate to even imply this, if you are going to engage in censorship of the public's thoughts.

    2) Drop the comments all together. That way, it doesn't put you in the position of having to interpret and judge other people's thoughts and then censor them.

    it's disappointing that you caved so easily on such an important issue (freedom of speech vs. censorship) to a troll or two, whose only objective was to get a reaction from you and fellow commenters. The best approach to dealing with these people is to keep your dignity about you and ignore them. You have done neither with this decision.

    ReplyDelete
  10. if u don't like it-----DON"T read it

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You make my point for me.

      Censoring of free speech means I don't get to decide if I like it, or not, and, as an extension, whether I want to read it, or not..

      Delete
  11. Really, seriously, commentary about the guy's family is off limits, even comments about comments about the guy's family.

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  12. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  13. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    Replies
    1. Free speech is free speech. Not quite sure why/how you can advocate on behalf of free speech groups while deeming what some people have to say on any topic "worth it," or not.

      Unfortunately, I guess, for you, you can't have it both ways. With freedom comes good and bad.

      Delete
  14. Phi-Delt or Beta dude?

    ReplyDelete
  15. So, you will be including the "minimum standards" you will be enforcing, someplace on the blog page. That would be the right thing to do.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Ridiculous, Bryan.

    You now have comments in response to comments that aren't there any more!

    You should just get out of the comment business all together, if you don't have the stomach for it.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Bryan

    There is a simple solution to this "free speech" thing. People can say anything they want..... as long as they sign their name to it

    Jim Hagan

    ReplyDelete
  18. Tips and comments on the Dennis Daugs story welcomed here: http://theseattleflash.com/2014/10/26/is-dennis-daugs-heading-to-prison/

    ReplyDelete

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