Daily photo

In Honor of Coldplay

  • February 2, 2006
Jennifer made a quick call last night while she was being deafened at the Fiona Apple + Coldplay concert, lending me a free ticket to hear the middle of Yellow. Technology is great.

My new mantra: I will not be a comment whore ... I will not be a comment whore ... I will not be a comment whore ...

Today I read an article by Andy Rutledge concerning why he doesn't allow comments on his site. He gets annoyed at the mainstream visitors who join the conversation simply to disagree, and he feels that it's not really important to receive affirmative comments that offer no further conversation. I suppose this leaves only a few constructive comments, and he's just tired of the rest of them. This gives me a new view on comments, so that I must not write or take particular photos in order to get gratifying comments. On the other hand, my site is small enough that most of my commenters are people I know, who don't tend to write useless flames. Smitha doesn't seem immune to that problem.

I've been reading a couple of politically conservative blogs lately so that I can try to get viewpoints from the opposite side. The two I'm currently reading, Blogs for Bush and Wizbang, take different approaches. BfB tends to overgeneralize, equating the crazy extreme leftists with all Democrats, so I have found myself commenting in the style of "do you really think that?" The writers there seem to employ the "ends justify the means" method of debate that angers Jon Stewart so. Alternatively, Wizbang covers some non-political material and seems to approach the issues from a more rational viewpoint that simply happens to be conservative. The whole commenting problem helps me approach these forums in a more constructive manner; instead of simply saying "Conservatives suck because they like Dubya!", I must be reasonable and try to make my point in a way that might actually change some minds. After all, these websites belong to other people, and it's not my right to barge in and deface them.

Comments

  • Kyle
  • February 2, 2006
  • 3:30 pm
that guy on the left... hairface... is creeping me out
  • Smitha
  • February 2, 2006
  • 6:59 pm
Heh--I've been un-immune to that problem for years now, unfortunately. ;P Good post, though. I'm also guity of generalizing sometimes, which makes me just as bad as the right-winters who generalize about me. It'd be better to take a more educated and thought-out approach and trying to understand their rationale for their decisions--good on you for doing that.
  • jennifer
  • February 2, 2006
  • 11:14 pm
some of the rest of this set are really awesome. everyone should click on the "more like this" link!
  • Matt
  • February 3, 2006
  • 11:21 am
I'm with Kyle; crop or update.
  • jon drews
  • March 6, 2006
  • 1:26 am
tsk tsk-- didnt the high museum photography rules say you cant post pictures inside it online? at least -- thats what i got out of it.
  • Ethan
  • March 6, 2006
  • 9:16 am
Hm, I don't remember that being a clause...
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