The EU

Google says the EU requires a notice of cookie use (by Google) and says they have posted a notice. I don't see it. If cookies bother you, go elsewhere. If the EU bothers you, emigrate. If you live outside the EU, don't go there.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Comments on Comments

Has the Internet become a self-licking ice cream cone?

Here is Tiger Hawk spending a day (yesterday) commenting on every post by Instapundit

As you might figure, Tiger Hawk is a law school graduate.

Here is the "Second Derivative".  There will not be a "third derivative" at this site. (That was ambiguous, wasn't it.  I mean to say I will not be commenting on each of the comments.)

Regards  —  Cliff

1 comment:

The New Englander said...

Cliff,

Please keep this stuff up -- I love the idea of talking about blogs...blogging on blogging, or, in this case, comments on comments.

There's a book I've been meaning to mention to you, Kad, Renee, Dick, Lynne, and Mimi -- it's called Say Everything by Scott Rosenberg. I'm not done with it yet but it's due back to Pollard in a few...it's all about blogging.

The first part of the book is the author getting into the history of blogging, but the second part gets into the stuff that I think is way more interesting -- what do blogs really mean, what are they worth, what will they replace, where are they headed, etc. I am hoping to write some type of review when I'm all done with the book and then post it.

I am a huge fan of the "second derivative" as it relates to replies to comments to the author. To me, what makes blogs more interesting than old-fashioned print media is that they can be interactive. The difference between reading an essay in RSOL, for example, as opposed to Newsweek, is that with RSOL I can instantly write back to the author, ask him to clarify or point out something I particularly agree or disagree with, and he or she can write back.

A friend of mine used to blog and what frustrated me is that he would write a really thoughtful entry, I would take the time to write a comment with some points for further discussion, but then it would just die. From that was born my own comment-to-the-comment policy.

Then there are blogs like End of Nihilism that just don't have comments at all. To each his or her own..

A great example of why I love comments can be found on the LiL thread about interest level in the School Committee. Mimi "headlined" a comment I had written about the lack of challengers, offered some thoughts of her own, and then BAM! all of a sudden there was a big slew of thoughtful comments from Bob Forrant, Victoria Fahlberg, and a host of others that helped explain the situation.

best,
gp