Oliver Kamm has his critics - hardly surprising given his outspoken attacks on blogging itself and his left-leaning advocacy of neocon foreign policy. Nonetheless his blog is one the few genuine must-reads as far as I'm concerned and until today Oliver's blog was part of that strange little corner of the blog world that doesn't allow comments - content simply to have their say and let it stand alone on its merits. Norman Geras is another.... But not any longer. Oliver has changed his mind and decided to allow comments and I'm not sure how I feel about it.
You see, things have changed these days - read a newspaper or BBC News online and suddenly an experiencing that used to be passive & informatory becomes a dialogue, something that requires you to 'login' and perhaps 'post your comments', indeed I'm sometimes even asked if I'm caught up in the story and asked to send them pictures! TV offers no escape - there I'm regularly burdened with deciding who stars in the next Andrew Lloyd Webber musical or which celebrity, usually famed for the most inane of talents, has best mastered another such as dancing, skating or clay pot throwing etc. This is an age where we're invited to 'contribute', 'share', 'vote' or 'comment' at almost every turn and it can become tiresome.
So in that context there was something pleasingly quaint about being able to visit Kamm's site, read what he had to say and then process my reaction to it entirely unaided by him. Whether enraged and insulted or enthused and delighted, Kamm was indifferent to the reaction of his readers and there are too few media experiences like that these days. But no more I'm afraid - Kamm's site threatens to join the ranks of CiF and the other big fish of the blog world where every nutter has their say. Can there be any more dispiriting a sight than the phrase 'Comments (86) - Add your own' - you just know there aren't 86 insightful observations there (you'll be lucky to find 6) and the exchanges no more deserve the term dialogue than a rowdy pub brawl does. The invitation to 'Add a Comment' feels like being tapped on the shoulder at a football match and asked why you're not shouting with the other 40,000....
And yes I know these are strange observations from someone who runs a blog but since double digit comments here are a rarity I think I can just about get away with it. In fact, to mark the passing of Kamm's 'No Comment' policy let's leave this this one post of mine to stand unchallenged, silent & proud - no comments please...
You see, things have changed these days - read a newspaper or BBC News online and suddenly an experiencing that used to be passive & informatory becomes a dialogue, something that requires you to 'login' and perhaps 'post your comments', indeed I'm sometimes even asked if I'm caught up in the story and asked to send them pictures! TV offers no escape - there I'm regularly burdened with deciding who stars in the next Andrew Lloyd Webber musical or which celebrity, usually famed for the most inane of talents, has best mastered another such as dancing, skating or clay pot throwing etc. This is an age where we're invited to 'contribute', 'share', 'vote' or 'comment' at almost every turn and it can become tiresome.
So in that context there was something pleasingly quaint about being able to visit Kamm's site, read what he had to say and then process my reaction to it entirely unaided by him. Whether enraged and insulted or enthused and delighted, Kamm was indifferent to the reaction of his readers and there are too few media experiences like that these days. But no more I'm afraid - Kamm's site threatens to join the ranks of CiF and the other big fish of the blog world where every nutter has their say. Can there be any more dispiriting a sight than the phrase 'Comments (86) - Add your own' - you just know there aren't 86 insightful observations there (you'll be lucky to find 6) and the exchanges no more deserve the term dialogue than a rowdy pub brawl does. The invitation to 'Add a Comment' feels like being tapped on the shoulder at a football match and asked why you're not shouting with the other 40,000....
And yes I know these are strange observations from someone who runs a blog but since double digit comments here are a rarity I think I can just about get away with it. In fact, to mark the passing of Kamm's 'No Comment' policy let's leave this this one post of mine to stand unchallenged, silent & proud - no comments please...
Links to this post:
Create a Link
<< Home