Randy Barnett gently ribs his co-blogger for his penchant for providing open threads on a topic when others (Barnett himself, David Bernstein, Jim Lindgren and I think sometimes Eric Posner) close comments on a controversial topic. As a commenter on Barnett’s post points out, even in threads started by others Orin is more willing to engage the commenters. I’m not going to bother insisting that other bloggers do so, there are other things they can do with their time (I forgot to check back in at a thread at the Bloggingheads forum where I kicked things off, appropriately enough for this post, on the subject of censoring comments). Not so for closing comments. I don’t understand how a troll or spam filled comment section is worse than no comment section at all unless the real objection is the easier airing of criticism. I don’t think it’s any coincidence that Orin’s post tend to be more thoughtful than those without comment sections.
It’s quite possible I’ve made an earlier post/s promoting this norm and even specifically referencing the Volokh Conspiracy. Another blog norm I don’t think I’ve highlighted here before is that of linking directly to pieces on the web you are referring to.
As long as I’m taking about V.C comments, a Chester A. Arthur “dualer” (don’t call us “birthers”!) gives a hilarious example of cui bono reasoning.
November 19, 2009 at 12:27 pm
For some reason, this reminds me of David Kopel’s recent post at VC where he suggested (seemingly earnestly) that librarians should classify Heidegger’s work under “History of Nazism” rather than “Philosophy.” Being a longtime fan of Kopel’s stuff, I was almost shocked by his display of dumbth. In that case, comments were open.
November 19, 2009 at 6:08 pm
Many of the VC bloggers are very ethnocentric. The only thing exceptional about Kopel’s “dumbth” is that he mistakenly put out on his blog a trial balloon of the kind that is normally debugged or debunked behind closed doors.
November 19, 2009 at 9:03 pm
Chip,
That was pretty terrible. Guess Kopel wanted to be an Anti-Fascist Super Hero.
I don’t get your association of ethnocentrism with Kopel’s post. I don’t even know what his ethnicity is, just that he’s Catholic (and has a low opinion of theological justifications for pacifism). David Bernstein writes a lot about Jews/Israel, but Eugene Volokh seems rather indifferent about being Jewish and might identify more strongly as Russian (sort of like a pair of Jewish Russians/Israelis I knew in college, though with them the one who identified primarily as Russian was the less deracinated). I think a few others there also immigrated from Russia, but don’t talk about it as much.
November 19, 2009 at 11:47 pm
I didn’t read it as ethnocentrism either, though Kopel’s father is Jewish.
November 30, 2009 at 7:48 pm
It seems odd to me that libertarians (like Barnett) are so reluctant to allow feedback. It seems to be the pattern with other libertarian sites on the net too. Reasons “Hit And Run” is the only exception that comes to mind.
Mind you, a lot of the libertarian bloggers seem to be academics and are not used to the more rough and tumble world of internet commenting.
December 1, 2009 at 11:31 pm
What other feedback-unfriendly libertarian sites are you referring to?
I discussed whether blog comment censorship is in tension with libertarianism here.