My Favourite Blogger - or - When The Comments Turn Nasty
I’m not sure I have said this before. Scott Adams is my favourite blogger. Of course I have other favourite bloggers (don’t worry I am not going to list them, I like links but I am not that desperate, heh). Before I let you in on why I think Scott is one of the best bloggers around, here is what made me think about him today.
Scott writes in “The Vanishing Post” that he had to pull one of his articles …
I approve reader comments before they get posted. You didn’t see the worst ones. The reactions to my Hardaway post were making me lose the last morsel of respect I have for humanity. It was a personal decision to kill the post and stop the incoming comments on that topic. I couldn’t read them anymore.
One of the reasons Scotts blog is so interesting is because he writes about interesting issues. He has discussed politics, religion, relationships, philosophy, tipping, how he would murder someone and get away with it … His posts make you think, even if you don’t always agree with him. In fact I think he wants you to disagree more often than not. He writes with more humour, and in with a more original take and perspective than any other writer I can think of.
Unfortunately you don’t always get the readers you deserve.
I have been lucky throughout my writing “career”. Yes, right from the early days in the mid-90’s I have had my fair share of “you suck” emails. I still do. But I have never had to put up with the ignorance that Scott Adams does. It seems he attracts people who argue with what they hallucinate they thought he might have said. Or nutters who just want to spout drivel in the hope of attracting drivel. We all get the odd troll, his blog seems to breed them.
What in the world could be special about his blog that he gets such strange reactions? Is it because of the topics he writes about? Maybe, I am not sure that is the whole story though. I think he is a weirdo magnet.
I have seen bloggers give up because of negativity and adverse public reaction to their writing. My hope is Scott Adams has a thicker skin and can ride out the weirdness that goes on. When you write hoping people will enjoy what you have to say, you hope at least they will respond to your actual words rather than what they didn’t read.
Posted on February 23rd, 2007 by Chris Garrett in Blogging
Scott is one of the very few bloggers on my ‘must read’ list. Its a shame people are not more openminded.
Yeah. Perhaps there are many open minded people but they are drowned out by the crazies? :O)
I also read his blog and his comic strip, however, I think he sets out to be controversial with his blog. I agree he writes about some interesting issues, but he tries to get under your skin and ruffle a few feathers. With that being his goal, he probably should expect the worst when it comes to comments.
Thanks Chris, I didn’t know Scott Adams blogged.
Dilbert is what I interact with regularly, and he sits in multiple places on my bookshelf here. 
About Scott pulling the article, I have noticed that many people have the tendency to take things personal when they comment on other sites. I wrote recently about how and why one should disagree with arguments, not with people who disagree. If people can simply be more courteous, we can have more productive discussions. For some reason, many people simply think that since on the internet no one can confront others easily face to face, they can go ahead and argue in any manner they want and be impolite when an author of a post has not attacked them directly in the first place.
I wish I could have read that post by the way, to get a more thorough understanding of what was said and how people responded to it.