Heated Debate : My Reply
December 8, 2006 at 8:56 am
The day after the IIA awards I posted a comment about feeling violated at the Awards due to the pesky podcasters who were positioned at my table. You can read the post here.
This post has generated a lot of comment from all sorts of people who have strong feelings about digital rights, privacy, and other lofty ideas. A certain poster called Damien Mulley has voiced particularly strong opinion regarding Digital Rights Ireland. His tagline on his blog is ‘invisible people have invisible rights’ so let’s assume he’s got an axe to grind here…
I published his initial comments, but when another couple came in yesterday (his and someone else’s) - I took a stand - and decided against it. While I’m delighted that this has generated something to talk about, I would point out that the Brightspark blog is about running an internet business in Ireland. It’s not about the advocacy of freedom of information, publishing law, etc. I am passionate about encouraging others to blog. Especially when they have something to say, and a good way with words. So I really don’t think it’s a good thing to have a legal argument taking place here - it’s inappropriate, it’s off brief, and it could scare new bloggers away!
Damien noted that I didn’t publish his post and very kindly took the whole debate over to his blog. He titled it “Blogging Lesson for Brightspark”. I don’t like the title, it smacks of someone who’s been blogging a very long time and thinks they know it all. I would point out that I’ve been blogging 1 month longer than Damo, so I don’t need lessons in how to manage my blog. You can read on here.
Comments (7 responses)
I’m not an expert at this, but I thought that legally as long as you’re aware that you’re being recorded, then the podcaster is in the clear (or at least that is how it works for telephone banking).
Whether it is socially acceptable or not is another matter.
Could be a bit like smoking (before the ban). You might not like coming home from the pub smelling of other peoples smoke, but you knew what was going happen when you went to the pub!
Just on the issue of suitability, Damien’s post led me to your blog for the first time. But now that I see that you don’t want to ’scare away’ bloggers by letting your rational commenters debate issues out in your comments I’d tend not to come back, as I’d expect blandness as a rule.
The unexpected response is one of the features of a lively blog.
No, not blandness. Merely keeping to the point. It’s a blog about running an internet business. Not a blog about digital rights.
For more debate on digital debate, I’d suggest you visit http://irish.typepad.com/irisheyes or http://www.mulley.net/.
Mary, you started this whole discussion and now you are harping on that yours is a business blog to talk about business things only. So was your initial blog post an error in judgement since it was not about running a business?
Now more than ever I would like some clarification on your comment “between old rivalries with particular axes to grind”
Who has an axe to grind and what old rivalaries? Can you clarify that it was not me you were suggesting in that comment? I hope this comment goes though.
Ummm, you published a post about how you felt violated because you were being recorded and are then surprised when people debated on your post about the rights and wrongs of recording people?
You say this is a blog about running an Internet business. Podcasting is an Internet business and the legalities of it should be of interest to all Internet centric peoples.
If, as you suggested, other people had their own agendas, then this would have become obvious as the debate continued and they would have looked bad.
Instead, you chose to curtail the discussion and in so doing make yourself look bad!
So who made the rule that you must publish every single aggressive comment that comes the way of your blog?
If there is a set of blogging rules, do please let me know.
In the meantime, I’ll continue to do as I please - and if that means not publishing an aggressive comment that, quite frankly, wasn’t adding anything new, then I won’t.
“If there is a set of blogging rules, do please let me know.”
Now, now Mary, there’s no need to get sarcastic.
I’m trying be helpful here.
“an aggressive comment that, quite frankly, wasn’t adding anything new”
Personally I publish all comments. The more aggressive ones also add something.
They educate the readers on an aspect of the commenter’s personality they might not otherwise have seen.
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