Blogs Build Community-Don't They?

I am sad to read that another of who I call, bloggy friends, has decided to put their computer aside after one too  many nasty comments. To make it worse, the trolls were in full force on a post that was sharing about her kids and youth soccer. I'm all for a little healthy discussion and opinions of descent, but the things in common with the badgers is they seem to be anonymous, and they make comments to tear down the writer (or a commenter), and not add anything of value or construction. Maybe my blogs is too vanilla as I have never had anything but  healthy banter and welcomed feedback, so I can't know what it is like to be tore apart in the comment section, but imagine it feels pretty raw.

According to Merriam Webster, the definition of a blog is "a Web site on which someone writes about personal opinions, activities, and experiences;". When an amateur blogger welcomes comments, she is welcoming  the reader to share a piece of her life, her experiences. She may give an opinion that is absolutely counter to what the reader believes to be true, and in stating it in a publicly viewable venue, has given permission to engage in healthy and respectful dialogue. The intent is not to start a war of words and a verbal thrashing over the head. Even if someone was blogging as part of their job, their profession, when is rudeness and visceral nastiness justified?

I know I am a personal financial conservative, socially liberal, tree hugging want to be, never voted for a republican, died in the wool blue state resident, that oozes privilege. Some of you might think I'm an idiot with my head far up my behind in terms of my political views. I cringed a bit at some of your posts after the  election in much the same way you may have cringed at mine. But none of us are political bloggers, with the implicit role of pot stirrer. We are all entitled to our view, and entitled to put in our blog what we want to say, and maybe needed a post or two to process the new leadership landscape. I have stopped reading a few bloggers when it became apparent that not only are our  views on the world different, our approach to life was so different that the reader-blogger experience wasn't adding value to either party. That's OK, and I wish the blogger and their readers well.

To close, here's a cut and paste on my commentary guidelines.  "Join the conversation. Your respectful comments are welcome. Spam and advertising products or services without permission will be deleted, as will anything deemed hurtful to others. A change, I moderate comments to be sure I read them all and stay ahead of the spam. If you're a blogger, feel free to include your blog URL." If you enjoy my blog, I hope you keep reading and commenting when the mood strikes. And, if you choose to move on, I'm OK with that too, just don't let the door hit you on the way out. Read that last sentence with total tongue in cheek!