Read, react, write, post. Brilliantly simple yet bearing the potential for snags. Kerry Trotter addresses the culture of commenting on blogs, and proposes a self-imposed breather before we hit "submit."
The request was innocuous enough.
Man-up, men. Find your purpose and passion. Be better fathers, husbands, workers, servants of God.
But oh—Oh!—how it was misunderstood.
The author who penned the October 11 blog titled “Let’s Get Our Act Together, Fellas,” which posited the above message of self-improvement, unwittingly found himself in the blog commenting equivalent of a hornet’s nest.
The article racked up dozens of comments in no time, usually a good sign. But many missed the point the author was making, instead heading on a decidedly un-Catholic tangent. Word on Fire staff ultimately made the call to remove the comment box on that particular blog, halting the conversation and allowing us to catch our breath.
Commenters attacked the author, each other, the Church, social movements; the truly nasty comments were not approved and never appeared on the site. A few that made the cut still managed to get readers worked up.
“I’m beginning to think that I should stop relying on this website for insight just like I’ve stopped relying on many others,” wrote one frustrated participant.
Oh dear, I thought. This is not good.