Comments Are Back On

As I mentioned previously, comments have been unavailable on the site for the past few weeks:

There was a rise in casual negativity that felt too close to how social media feels, i.e. a place where even well-meaning folks are not incentivized to think “this isn’t for me” and move on without comment. I understand that the pull of treating this social space just like other social spaces is strong, but we’re trying to do something different here…

In the meantime, I’ve updated and refreshed the community guidelines; if you are going to participate in comments threads here, I would appreciate you reading it. (Quick reminder: you need to be a KDO member to comment.)

Instead of going over the guidelines here, I thought it might be helpful to share some examples of what I would consider good comments & threads:

👏 Margaret M’s comment on The Lies and Falsifications of Oliver Sacks (it’s a good thread in general); an excerpt:

I’m a doctor. It’s my second career; I was a book editor before. Naturally, when I decided to go back to school to pursue medicine, I read all sorts of books by doctors about taking care of their patients. Obviously, I read everything he wrote (for a general audience, anyway).

This is such a betrayal.

🙌 Stuart Kern’s comment on Core Memories With the Swiftie Dads; an excerpt:

Got time for a lengthy Worst Dad Ever Goes to See Taylor Swift story?

2018 Taylor Swift tour. I take joy in what brings either of my two daughters joy. Happy to take my 17 year old daughter to see Taylor Swift. It involved snakes for some reason.

Months in advance she camps out online and scores two tickets. Days out she decorates a t-shirt. Concert day she gets home from school, paints her face. We sit in traffic for two hours to get to the stadium. She floats across the acres of parking lot, grooving on the scene. We get to the gate.

“These tickets were for last night.”

👍 Both discussions about Pluribus — perfect posts for folks to express opinions. And so many people thoughtfully disagreeing with me and each other with kindness & respect.

😊 The thread about the “devilish” 2025 game. Quick comments work here — everyone understood the vibe of the thread.

🎯 Dalton’s comment on Playing Boards of Canada on a DEC PDP-1 from 1959:

Somewhere there is a Venn diagram of all the things I like, and this is right in the middle of all of it!

It’s always OK to express your enthusiasm and appreciation for a link or comment.

I also pulled some examples of feedback from social media that I don’t find helpful in contributing to a good discussion. None of these have a “yes, and…” vibe:

👎 These replies to the CIA deleting the World Factbook:

But then, did we ever trust “facts” published by the CIA?

I’m pretty sure half of them are functionally illiterate anyway so they probably don’t see the point.

Perfectly fine posts for social media but they wouldn’t work on KDO; they’re casually negative and don’t improve the conversation for others. Discussing the trustworthiness of the CIA, the propaganda aspect of the World Factbook, and the incompetence of the current regime are all worthy topics of discussion, but you’ve gotta work harder than these drive-by dunks.1

🤦‍♂️ This reply to The Strangers’ Case:

Many would say that Shakespeare and Sir Thomas More were unoriginal. This same guidance is found from 1,600 years earlier in Luke 10. Many know is the parable of the Good Samaritan.

Again, very normal social media post. Further context/reading is good, but you can tell us about the Parable of the Good Samaritan without dinging Shakespeare for unoriginality.

😱 This reply to the news about canned juice being discontinued:

OJ is liquid candy anyway, which is why juice sales are stalling. I just wish it weren’t towards the horrid paint thinner that is kombucha…

Self-explanatory, I hope.

Anyway, I hope you get the gist and that I haven’t completely scared you off from commenting here. Really, the vast majority of comments here are great and I’m glad this facet of the site is back.

1. That said, the tone of my post about the Factbook was not at all positive or constructive: “The CIA has deleted the CIA World Factbook (a popular almanac about the countries of the world) from the web. Fuck this. All these assholes do is pillage & destroy.” (And because of that tone, I probably would not have turned on comments for that post — not a good conversation starter on my part.)↩

Tags: kottke.org