h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I don't have a lot of time to read blogs, but I subscribe to some, and I also regularly read Slate and a couple of other internet news sites.

And I make a valiant effort to completely ignore and avoid the comments section.

Why, you ask?

The posters of many of these comments have told me, over the years, that it is because I can't handle "robust debate".

But what these posters are looking for isn't debate. They don't *want* to discuss the topic with various people, potentially be educated or enlightened, or even "live and let live". What they seek is a venue in which to air their (often ill-informed, delusional or downright reprehensible) opinions, and have others validate those ideas by establishing that there are perhaps two sides of the argument worth defending.

In my experience, that is seldom the case. The opposing view to a reasonable one is typically indefensible.

You can't win this kind of argument. So don't bother trying. As far as I am concerned, the best thing to do is leave the losers to talk to themselves.

Inclined to agree. There's an incredible liberation that comes when you realise it's not your job to correct *every* misguided opinion in the world.

i read the comment sections for entertainment purposes only.

Is it just me or does anyone else see how ironic this thread is?

Of course anyone who disagrees is welcome to not comment.

But in all seriousness, this was meant as a real vent after (regrettably) reading the comments on a blog I subscribe to and finding them depressing, for various reasons.

Now you've got me half-wanting to argue just to be stubborn.

When I first joined h2g2 I heard of a hush hush subject labelled the "della wars" so maybe these types of things can happen anywhere. As long as it doesn't get too personal it is always better to find out what people think than not to know what they think (imvho).

Why? Why is it important for me to know that someone in Missouri, who I'll never meet, thinks, say, that socialised medicine is the root of all evil? I already know some people hold that view, so I don't feel that reading it in a comments section is important in the least.

There has been more text printed, by this stage in the 21st Century, than I could read in a lifetime. That means a decision has to be made about what I can skip.

It depends on the blog really: I read the comments section of Billie Doux religiously because there's a little gang of smart, perceptive writers who help me appreciate my favourite programmes more, spot things I'd missed. Similarly some of the facebook pages I subscribe to - I'll actually learn something.

Then there's places like the BBC and Guardian comments section that are just hilarious.

Some of the most idiotic and irrationally hostile ones I've ever seen have been posted under completely inoffensive YouTube clips.

Oh, yes. YouTube comments are surreal!

When it comes to blogs, skipping the comments is, as KB says, mostly because life is short and I don't have time to read everything I want to read. The few blogs I do read, I read because I'm interested in what the blogger has to say. Not so much their other readers.

There's an excellent troll on Sue Marsh's blog,Diary of a Benefit Scrounger. Forever getting his facts completely and utterly wrong - usually about how much benefit a particular claimant would get in all of his hypothetical situations. It's hilarious watching the others point out his 'errors'.

The above comment was by me (that'll teach me to not use Opera to post from )

That was definitely a 'Who Dunnit'!


lil x

I was reading the post, thinking to myself "that name sounds vaguely familiar, but I'm not sure I've spoken to this person before". But then I remembered I mixed her a lot of rum and Cokes once not long ago.

Looks like I will have to revise my "No Reading the Comments Section" policy to allow for those which are hilarious and totally off the rails.

I've also made the occasional exception in instances where the content of the article itself is appalling. For example, the first letter appearing in Slate's advice column for today, where the letter writer was a racist married to an East Asian woman who is infertile. They'd decided they wanted to have donor eggs implanted, and the racist wanted white children so they'd "look like him" and better fit into their racially homogenous community. (?!?) He wanted to know how to communicate this notion to his wife without sounding like the racist he is. It was quite nice to see a number of people commenting that the poor wife is probably already well aware of that fact.

But at some sites - Yahoo is a perfect example - the comments are overwhelmingly bigoted and ugly. These commenters aren't looking to re-examine their prejudices, and no amount of discussion is going to change that. So I see no point in wasting time and energy giving them the validation they seek.

Especially when there are so many photos of cute animals to "squee" over.

Indeed!