The Borgblog, Jim Borgman’s blog, has passed the 2 year mark with 526 posts and nearing 20-30 comments a day. He has posted a review of the evolution of his blog which started out as a means of posting his sketches and rough drafts and then turned to posting his final cartoons and writing longer essays. He mentions that because of the unruly nature of the comment section, that the blog’s current form has run its course and he’s looking for what else he might do with the blog and how to rein in the anonymous commentors.
The Comments section of this blog has become a crack house of vitriole, a dangerous dark alleyway where angels fear to tread, and who can blame them? Anonymity provides cover for some people to air their darkest side, to attack randomly and venomously. It’s something I don’t want to be associated with anymore. I’ve come to feel the guilt of a slumlord, a kind of complicity in providing a barely monitored space where unaccountable voices brawl and slash.
So I’m giving BorgBlog a rest until the first of the new year and looking for your thoughts on what it might become next. In its present form, I think it has run its course. Any ideas what we might do in this space next? How do we take back this neighborhood?
One of my favorite things to do each week, when I have a few free minutes, is to check in with Borg’sBlog. It has consistently been one of the most enjoyable cartoonist’s blogs on the internet. Jim’s sharing of his process, his opinions, and his drawings – both roughs and finished ‘toons, is a wonderful site for cartoonists, aspiring cartoonists, and fans of the art. I sure hope he doesn’t abandon it outright because of a few muttonheads’ comments; surely there’s some way to filter out the junk, as Alan seems to be able to do here on The Daily Cartoonist? Maybe by going with another blogging service?
Blogs, especially popular blogs, may go the way of guestbooks … to many spammers and detractors. Only thing that might help is reviewing comments before they go on, but that is a pain. It’s too bad when folks are just out to annoy either the creator or other users of a blog or web site.
It’s not too difficult to ban anonymous comments. This site does it.
I had this problem on my blog. But I think that most blog hosters now offer an option to hold any comment until the blog host or hosts have had a chance to view it.