ScamBuster

I spend some of my free internet time using the StumbleUpon extension for Firefox. It's a toolbar, and you basically install it, tell it what kinds of things you like to read about, and start clicking the "Stumble" button. When you click that, the tool takes you to a random site that falls within the range of your expressed interests. It constantly updates and edits itself by having users give a thumbs up or thumbs down on each site it produces.

So if I told it that I like comic book sites and it kicks up a bunch of those for me, but it sees I give a thumbs down to all Spiderman sites...it will learn to stop giving me Spiderman comics. Download here if you use Firefox. Alternatively: IE, Opera. Iceweasel here, but good luck figuring out how to install it you Linux Weirdos.

Anyways, using that I find a lot of blogs that I never would have found before. This is about one of those blogs. The article was called The Day I Timed Out. It was funny. A guy went to an interview, was forgotten in a room for 15 minutes, got fed up and since he didn't really need the job he walked out and left a funny note about having "timed out" at 900000 milliseconds (15 minutes).

In the comments, people were taking what happened and applying it to other situations...then bashing him for acting the way he did in their made up scenarios! So I posted a comment that said:

You want to date a hot girl, you are willing to take a little bit of crazy. If he really wanted the job I am sure he would have stuck it out. Since he clearly didn’t, nothing was lost.

Everyone is placing his actions in a different context and then bashing him for his conduct. The context is what it is…he didn’t need the job more than they needed him so he was not willing to deal with BS. This exact thing happened to me once and I didn’t bat an eyelash because I really wanted the job. Willing to take a little bit of crazy so to speak.

Besides, we need to acknowledge that the note he left was pretty funny and in good humor. He didn’t write “F#^k Off Doodie Heads!” or anything like that.

Next day I get an email that said:

Matt,

Thanks for your comment. I have had to moderate it just slightly though by removing the first sentence "You want to date a hot girl, you are willing to take a little bit of crazy."

Regards,
WarpedJavaGuy

That's weird. I hit him back with:

That's cool, but for future reference I gotta ask why. No profanity, and the analogy basically makes my post since I reference it later. Maybe just delete the whole post for me then?

~Matt

His reply:

Matt,

The hot girl bit just makes it a bit too easy for people out there to misinterpret the metaphor. It's your call if you want me to delete it, but it still reads well I think.

Regards,
WarpedJavaGuy

Well that didn't make sense. Isn't it kind of on me to make sure people understand me? How does he know he didn't misinterpret me?

At this point I am dying to know what the problem is. Is this a gay IT blog, have I alienated his readers with a reference to girls? That would make more sense (and be easier to accept) than his first explanation. So I hit him back with:

WJG-

I understand. However, I would rather say exactly what I mean and be misunderstood than feel like I have a publicist helping me communicate. I'm not running for office!

Now it's almost guaranteed that my thought will be misinterpreted since it was truncated. I think there is a difference between editing and moderating. A magazine needs to be edited because each article is more or less a representation of the magazine so they want to ensure all thoughts and opinions are communicated in one voice or style. Comments on a blog need to be moderated to ensure that the content of your site is not offensive. All the comments don't need to be in your voice and style as well.

Two people can read the same sentence and come away with two different meanings. That's due to a dissimilarity in reading/writing comprehension and attitude. The people that see eye to eye with me would not misinterpret what I meant. The ones that might not 'get it' could very well misinterpret me. Worst case scenario, someone misunderstands and calls me out, I explain what I meant, we all walk away having learned something about how the other half communicates. That's also traffic for you, and as long as it's moderated (for vulgarity), it's interaction that makes people feel ownership in a site...because they can be heard.

Now I wonder how many of the other comments were retooled and therefore misunderstood. I feel that lacks honesty and creates a wall between readers and admin that should only exist in print media or perhaps China. :) I'm not trying to overblow this by the way, I've just never seen something like that before...I was surprised and I want to understand is all.

~Matt

His reply follows:

Matt,

I totally appreciate what you say. I do not want to edit your words and there is a fine line between editing and moderating. Maybe you could help me moderate it somewhat to make it less vulnerable to potential misinterpretation. I am more than happy to do that :)

Regards,
WarpedJavaGuy

At this point my head hit the desk. The difference between editing and moderating is not just nominal! Changing my post (I am convinced my thought was communicated clearly) and calling it moderation doesn't change the fact that it's being edited.

You can't color vanilla ice cream brown and say it's chocolate!

This situation is a perfect illustration of why everyone should act and think just like me. Then there'd be no problems.