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Policy on false comments

  • October 14th, 2008

I do not have much time to spend on this blog most days, and I prefer to leave even offensive comments standing, on the basis that they usually display the malice and limitations of their authors.

I’ve been impelled to revisit this by some of the misrepresentation of history, of National policy and about me that is a feature of this election, under a law that prevents free speech in response.

So for example I’ve decided to remove false comments  from now on, when I get around to seeing them, unless their falsity can speak for itself in relation to the post. This removal policy will mainly apply to commenters with a history of  no integrity in debate.

The first example is "Jason". He consistently misrepresents points to set up a straw man to burn. I’ve left them in the past because his reasoning is so wet it douses his matches. His straw men survive, looking silly.

But the Labour campaign relies on misrepresentation and the law’s restrictions on the ability to reply. When integrity in debate goes there may a kind of Gresham’s law at work (freely circulating counterfeit currency destroys reliance on the good currency as well as the fake).

So I’ll start in my small corner, and make sure my site at least is not helping some of their liars. If you are wondering what straw broke this camel’s back I’ll leave the trivial but false comment in the first response to "Boobs on bikes" as an example

Comments

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While Jason’s comment was inane and trying to score a cheap point off your thoughtful piece, I suggest that you’ll not serve your cause by deleting such comments. That will be used by your enemies as another thing to beat up.

Vindictive self-interested idiots and ideologues are part of the political landscape and blogs are not immune. Such comments are just bad heckling and banning them won’t stop the untruths. They’ll just pop up on other sites. At least having them on yours give you an opportunity to ignore or shame or refute, as you choose.

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  • Anonymous
  • October 14th, 2008
  • 11:41 am

What’s your policy on comments which call into question your classical liberal credentials? – such as my comment here.

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What’s your policy on comments which call into question your classical liberal credentials? – such as my comment here.

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  • Sue Wilson
  • October 14th, 2008
  • 12:03 pm

Good on you, Stephen. I think you’ve been pretty patient with the creeps, Tom, David and Jason who are consistently negative, twisting everything you say to suit their agenda. They’re obviously from the Labour candidate’s campaign and contribute nothing substantial to any debate.

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  • Tom
  • October 14th, 2008
  • 3:54 pm

Hey, that’s not nice :(.

I try to be pretty neutral here and your misperception is concerning, at least to me. The things I say here, which I say in good faith (though I admit they can be somewhat charged when it comes to certain topics), should never be misconstrued as some sort of “negative twisting agenda”. I take pride in being able to construct logical, reasonable posts.

Which are then universally ignored by Stephen. 😐

I guess it beats having them just deleted outright.

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