Does it bother you at all when total strangers on the Internet blow you off? Have you ever been blocked or banned from a blog because you have differing views (even though you’ve always been polite)?
I would defend to the death (well, that’s a figure of speech, but you know what I mean) anyone’s right to control comments on their blog and to block troublemakers, spammers, etc. But it seems to me that most people who have public blogs that get thousands of hits and hundreds of comments would expect and be open to a few more. A lively discussion draws more readers and more comments.
I like to think I’m a reasonable person who enjoys a good discussion about almost anything, but apparently not everyone feels that way. In this case I’m speaking of the folks over at The Confluence, a political site dedicated to Hillary Clinton. They’ve got this clever thing PUMA, “Party Unity My Ass” going on. I’m not being sarcastic, either. I do think it’s clever. But they’ve adopted the leaping puma logo trademarked by the Puma athletic gear company. I don’t know how big the group is, but some corporate lawyers get pretty nasty about such things.
So I posted a comment a day or two ago asking if they’d checked about trademark infringement and noted, in response to some preceding comments about him, that John McCain is pro-life. Two sentences, polite, less than 20 words total. And apparently deleted.
No biggie. After all, I have a brief sad history with The Confluence. A few months ago I wandered into a discussion over there about the Florida and Michigan delegates. I said something about the DNC having warned those states in advance not to move their primary dates, etc. It was immediately suggested that I might be “more confortable elsewhere.”
I should have known better than to say anything about PUMA, or to even go over there again. Curiosity got the better of me, though. Anyway, who knows, maybe if you play your cards right, they’ll welcome you with open arms. On the other hand, you might feel like you fell into a den of rattlesnakes.
© 2008 PiedType.com. Some rights reserved.
The Confluence is a blog devoted to Hillary Clinton. It is definitely not a public blog; it is meant for a selective audience (devoted Hillary supporters).
…………..
By public, I meant accessible to the public (not password protected or otherwise hidden from view and not requiring registration in order to comment).
Oy. How tedious. It wasn’t even like you were disagreeing with them. You were doing them a favor by pointing out that they could be tempting fate with ravenous corporate lawyers.
Bah, I hope the folks at Puma get a tip-off that someone is ganking their logo. It would serve the idjuts right.
……………..
Well, I’m no snitch, but I’m not above occasional jeering 😉
Hey 30,
They sound like a bunch of wankers to me. You’re right, if you’re going to post a political blog then you should be able to let everyone speak their piece, except in the case of extreme rudeness or profanity or plain flaming. And your comments were so benign – it figures.
If I were you though, I wouldn’t give them a live link. Why send them traffic? The jerks.
Annie
……………….
I was torn between using the link, so people could see how obnoxious they are, or leaving it out. And right now, taking it out sounds like a good idea. Thanks for the nudge. 🙂