Personal opinion from blog moderator :
The comments on the blog are becoming increasingly derogatory. Some commenters believe that ,as long as they avoid using certain words/ expressions ,somehow their comments are acceptable. No, they are not!
I always assumed that Labs employees have a certain level of logical and emotional intelligence that help them in debating others in a civil manner.
I stick to the rules posted in this blog but ,recently, I am convinced I need to filter the comments based on more than common bad words !
A while back, I did a poll to see if you want to end anonymous posting. There was an uproar !
A resounding NO.
I have a choice : doing away with anonymous posting or using my judgement to decide what comments to filter out .
I want constructive feedback. Your thoughts?
The comments on the blog are becoming increasingly derogatory. Some commenters believe that ,as long as they avoid using certain words/ expressions ,somehow their comments are acceptable. No, they are not!
I always assumed that Labs employees have a certain level of logical and emotional intelligence that help them in debating others in a civil manner.
I stick to the rules posted in this blog but ,recently, I am convinced I need to filter the comments based on more than common bad words !
A while back, I did a poll to see if you want to end anonymous posting. There was an uproar !
A resounding NO.
I have a choice : doing away with anonymous posting or using my judgement to decide what comments to filter out .
I want constructive feedback. Your thoughts?
Comments
You shouldn't have that much power over people's speech or ideas.
February 14, 2018 at 6:21 PM
What is weird is that control over my free speech and ideas does not just pertain a blog that you set up and operate, it must also mean that I have no free speech or ideas outside of your blog. For example I wanted to rant about Donald Trump fighting the free press, you stopped that. Now some may think I could go on the infinite number of political blogs and post about this but that fact you stopped the thread developing on Trump must somehow mean that my free speech was violated. Others think that since it is your blog you can apply the rules you like. The problem is that some think you have God like powers which means when you
do not allow something to be said on this blog it implies that free speech in the United States is over, in other words it is no just your blog it is the peoples blog. I am not sure I believe this but it is something to consider.
The screed and drivel in some of the recent posts detracts from comments on more serious topics, which now appear less often. Given the option to display fewer posts and have them be more relevant to the issues would be a net positive to the readers.
Thank you!
It seems like you're saying you care more about suppressing bad language and suppressing confrontation than promoting honest (not lying) discourse.
Maybe you should try no anonymous posting and see how many people create phony openID accounts to get around it.
I looked up the word in the dictionary and here are the two definitions:
1)make or become less extreme, intense, rigorous, or violent.
2)(in academic and ecclesiastical contexts) preside over (a deliberative body) or at (a debate
I especially like the first one. I don't think the right to free speech gives anyone the right to insult another person who has a different opinion. I have read comments on this blog, which were hateful and vitriolic, and I doubt anyone would say those in an open discussion. It is only the knowledge of being anonymous, that let's people going off like this.
Here I bring the 1st amendment as a reminder:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
I don't really see any congressional involvement here.
And I like the "stay on topic". Just look at most of the topics. It starts with someone posting , and after a few posts the insults start.
So I agree completely with February 15, 2018 at 3:59 AM, and reduce the number of namecalling or off topic comments as much as you can.
Is it possible that we actually have Russian bots posting? How would test this?
February 15, 2018 at 7:52 PM
So you own this blog and all particpants shall conform to your wshes. Got it. No entertainment here, just move along. Just out of curiousity, what is the minimum level of blog participation you'd be happy with?
This blog has gotten pretty hard to read. I think you need to exercise editorial control. There should be no ad-hominem attacks, no insulting language, and it should be about LLNL or the tri-labs, nothing more.
I think requests for anonymity should be considered only when a post could put someone's job in peril. There's no other reason for a post to be anonymous. You could give people a simple option: if they want to be anonymous, the posts will be moderated. That might help.
This is my first time back in a long time and I'm interested to see that this is the first topic. That should tell you something.
The goal is to have intelligent debate and no insults.
As a Google blogger blog owner ,my capabilities are more limited than most people think .
a) give up on moderation (let the trolls rule)
b) end anonymity (most trolls hate sunlight)
I do not believe there are any better options.
I am headed to b.
I think the blog should be shut down so I say go with option b.
At the very least ,we can track and block them .Only the serious will continue using the blog . No problem here because I am not interested in high volume. This is not a commercial enterprise.
Interesting?
Full of ideas?
Provacative?
Lively?
Controversial?
Diverse in opinion?
Educational?
A place for real news?
A whistleblower forum?
Fun?
Loss of anonyminity will kill most of that.
That is the point. Many people over the years have wanted this and the other blogs to be shut down. Even if there is lots of
fluff or "lively ideas" there has been plenty of truth. The labs have been privatized to make money, not necessarly to serve the nation. These same groups who want to make money off the labs also need to control the narrative about how well the labs are doing or not doing. Their interests will not always align with the that of the lab workforce of the role of the service to the labs to the nation. I happen to think the blogs may be been very helpful in getting a true picture out to DOE, Congress and the American people about the state of the labs, in fact I know few folks at DOE who have even stated this. In the very least what happens is that people off the record say whats going on to the DOE and a few DOE folks look at the blog to get another source that could help confirm what is being said. But I will give Scooby credit for keeping this blog going for so long, he is not being paid and it his time.
Of course for all I know most of the posters are Russian bots and the whole thing as a big scam to get Trump elected.
2004. Nanos's reign of terror was in full swing. He had publicly proclaimed that the Enemy was "butthead" scientists and that he would "save" LANL from them. People on the ground could see that an evil scam was being perpetrated, but they could get no support from the powers that be. Both UC and DOE had signaled their full support for Nanos' actions. Doug Roberts and a few other Brave Souls had first tried to have their opinions published in the LANL's official Readers’ Forum. Yet, those opinions were not allowed to appear, censored by Nanos and his minions. Instructively, the excuse given by the censors was precisely the need to keep the Readers' Forum "clean", as a crusade against comments deemed “mean-spirited” or “incendiary.” The Readers' Forum was surely "clean" at that time, too clean and empty in fact. So Doug started his legendary blog. The rest is history.
“My attempt has been to try to provide a truly unbiased, uncensored blog for people at the lab to express themselves,” Roberts said. “If Pete Nanos himself were to send a post to the blog I would have it up within 39 seconds.”
You can read the historical account, for example, here .
Sure, discussions on Doug's Blog were opinionated, passionate, but never "unclean". And in the end the Blog made a real difference: UC had to no choice but to let Nanos go. It accomplished what nothing else could do at the time. History was changed.
Scooby, who's your hero in this story: Doug Roberts or Kevin Roark?
P.S. Incidentally, the article quotes an anonymous LANL scientist saying, "I fear (the laboratory) is in a death spiral from which it may not recover for years, if ever." So true ...
Remember ,you have the option to start your own blog, volunteer to help make this blog better ,or shut up and don't let the door hit you in ..
Sorry not buying it, almost every post I have submitted has been approved. When they have not been it is because I may have used some bad language or I did not submit it as I thought I have. I suspect that your issue may be that you are actually having problems submitting and you think you have submitted but did not. I a can tell because there has been several cases of "why has my post been censored" followed by confused Scooby implying he did not remember censoring a post because you never actually submitted it the first place. Trust me it has happened to me as well. I just don't see this heavy hand of Scooby as you claim.
I will continue applying the rules.
Any problem with that? I do own the blog because I created but it is not mine! What else you going to ask me: how much time do I spend on it? Warning future inquiries will not be published.