To Allow Comments?

The Instapundit gives a good reason for not allowing comments:

One of the reasons I don’t have comments on my blog — besides laziness, which has always been the main reason — is that if you have comments, some dishonest hack will attribute them to you, instead of the commenters.

The source of the reflection is a third party blog commenting on comments on an Althouse blog post on the finalists for Dean of the University of Wisconsin Law School, a matter of public record.  Here is the original Althouse URL, although at this time Google/Blogger hasn't yet restored the link.

As an aside, Moe Lane, at Red State attributed the whole "Blogger" crash to evil forces trying to silence the Althouse blog.

But, back to the original thrust, here are the "Third Party" comments that were originally mentioned—the Brian Leiter blog.

[The Althouse blog has] degenerated into a cesspool of vile misogyny and homophobia (not only multiple calling Margaret Raymond a token “diversity” candidate, but multiple posts opining that she should get the job only if she has “big tits” and speculating that she’s a lesbian).

As a frequent reader of the Althouse blog I find the accusation strange.  I find the blog to be a little racey, but not a forum for hate.  Not to everyone's taste, but a legitimate expression of opinion with a fair amount of cultural reference and earthiness.

Commenting on the issue of breast size, Professor Althouse notes:

All right, that's absurd and over-the-top, but our dear, treasured Titus — a gay man.  He's been talking like that on this blog for years.  The regulars know him.  And they know I love him.  If that's what Leiter and the Anonymous Professor feel such angst about... it's because they don't understand the community here.

Then the Brian Leiter blog posts this EMail from the Dean at the University of Wisconsin Law School:

At today’s faculty meeting, the faculty expressed concerns with the derogatory comments about the three dean finalists recently posted on a blog.  In response to our discussion, I wish to share the following statement:

Like the rest of the Law School community, I was extremely impressed with the caliber of the applicants to be the next Dean of our school, and believe that each of the three finalists would be an outstanding Dean.

That makes it all the more unfortunate that a few individuals have used a blog maintained by one of our own faculty members to post scurrilous comments about the finalists.  To the best of my knowledge, none of the individuals posting these comments claims to have any connection to our school or university.  We are appalled by these remarks.  Kathie Hendley and I have communicated this to each of the finalists.

Given the tenor and nature of the blog comments, I believe that a public response is inappropriate and might give the comments more weight than is warranted.

Please continue to share your thoughts and concerns with me.  I appreciate the thoughtfulness of the law school community.

Prissy.

Then there is the whole AutoAdmit thing, brought up in the anonymous post.  It was a new website to me.  And too Geekie for me.   Apparently with a reputation in some corners.  But, they haven't picked up and responded to the comparison—maybe the participants don't care.

My conclusion at the end of this is that comments are not as embarrassing as unintended connections being drawn from trying to "monetize" the site.  As Professor Althouse notes about "Titus", you tend to know your own Commentariet.  The advertisers, and the code writers who develop the algorithms that link them to you are a total unknown.  Or worse, could include Kad Barma, from over at Choosing a Soundtrack.

Blogging is a communal activity.  Bloggers standing on their blog corners, shouting at bloggers standing on their own corners, seems to miss the whole point of blogging  There are times to speak from one's own blog, because of certain blogging tools available, but one should venture out from time to time and comment elsewhere, and allow reciprocal facilities.

Regards  —  Cliff