Image via WikipediaWhich blog has the best commenters on the Internet? It’s not Deadspin or Gawker or any other Gawker Media blog. Those blogs have arguably the funniest commenters, but the real purpose of blog commenting is to enhance the discussion created by the original blog post. Instead, the best comments on the Internet come from one of the Internet’s most unlikely proactive bloggers:
Roger Ebert. The
Chicago Sun-Times film critic and longtime television star constantly poses difficult, challenging propositions on his blog, and consistently gets some of the most enlightened, reasonable responses. Most of Ebert’s comments sound more fitting for a college-level film class or expert panel discussion than an internet blog.
What makes the intelligence of Ebert’s comments all the more amazing is the relative lack of a filter Ebert puts on them. Comments are moderated for spam, but all the blog requires is a name, an email, and an optional URL. The standards to avoid getting filtered out are shockingly minimal; there are numerous angry rants mixed in with the enlightening comments. Ebert also posits very controversial questions, such as a
set of rules for film critics. Perhaps most notably, he launched a
debate over reviewing a
movie that he stopped watching after 8 minutes. Those kind of tactics would normally produce all sorts of flame mail, especially considering the weakened authority of the mainstream media film critic as a result of blogs. Ebert’s comments, however, have enough Dear Roger, Dear Mr. Ebert, and even Dear Sir openings that it sounds more like
The Economist than the blog stereotype.
Through reading the comments on Ebert’s blog, as well as its sister blog, Jim Emerson’s
Scanners, I’m convinced that all bloggers can learn a thing or two from Ebert’s success. Ebert has put considerable craft and care into constructing his blog, and Ebert’s blog can be taken as a model for inspiring intelligent, reasonable blog comments in the future. Here are some ways the Ebert model can benefit us all:
- Have authority on and off the web. For film snobs as casual fans alike, Ebert has been one of the faces of film criticism for decades. Unlike most movie bloggers, Ebert has a extended track record that goes back decades before the Internet and blogs ever existed. Whether it's due to nostalgia from his fans, the clout of his resume, or his pure skill and knowledge, Ebert and his authority makes people feel like they need to treat him with respect online. Ebert has also struck a chord with the blogging demographic by crossing the generational gap. It’s one thing for someone to make their name writing on the Internet. But when a writer from a previous generation devotes himself to new media, his popularity on the web skyrockets. It’s the same phenomenon that makes any story of a 106-year-old blogger almost guaranteed to hit the Digg home page every time.
- Write well, and with respect. When former New York Times sports columnist Murray Chass started writing online, he refused to call himself a blogger, and spent a significant portion of his early “online writing” bashing the entire concept of blogging. As a result, Murray Chass was seen as a cranky old fart essentially writing Get Off My Lawn blog posts in denial. Most importantly, these “online articles” weren’t all that good. A general rule for blogs—and writing in general—is that hastily written rants will not win you a respectful, insightful audience. Usually, it will lead to even more offensive speech in comments. Ebert, however, takes his blog extremely seriously, and has never once questioned the legitimacy of the writing he is doing online. If he has ever done something he considers unfair in his blog, he has corrected himself. Furthermore, as Ebert has noted himself, the fact that he has lost the ability to speak in real life may have made his writing better. For years, the majority of people who knew of Roger Ebert only knew his television persona. Now, people are getting to know him for his gifts in writing, an area where he has surprisingly been underrated.
- Always be interested in what your commenters have to say. One of the best qualities of Ebert’s blog is that just about every blog post is poised as a question to his readers. Ebert’s open-ended questions are the perfect utilization of his authority to promote discussion online. It wouldn’t all that out of line to argue that Ebert’s blog has produced some of the best critical discussion of the film you can find anywhere in the past year. That only works because Ebert’s posts are specifically designed for commenter feedback. His particular style leads to more intelligent feedback precisely because it is so open to that feedback. It’s one thing to have authority and blog: Murray Chass has authority, as do NPR blogs or New York Times blogs. But those blogs don’t get the same kind of intelligent comments—the kind you could hear in a classroom as well as a web forum—because they don’t treat the reader like a peer. Ebert's blog does.
- Find time to recognize and praise your commenters—even the bad ones. Of course, very few of the people who comment on Ebert’s blog are Ebert’s peer, both in terms of status and skill. No doubt many of the comments he gets are hurtful, or often just plain stupid. But Ebert has still maintained excellent blog comments because he has repeatedly and overwhelmingly praised his commenters. He has cited other bloggers who recognize the strength of his comments (which he now includes in his blog's sidebar), and talks repeatedly about how the commenters on his blog have given him personal satisfaction. Ebert’s blog is a success story of the blogophere, and part of the reason for his success is that Ebert makes it so his readers want to maintain a the high level of discourse Ebert praises his commenters for, whether or not they always meet that standard. It’s hard to respond nastily to someone who is being so nice and respectful of your right to comment.
Granted, based on rule #1, it would be hard for just anyone to start a blog and acquire the same level of comments. But by catering to your niche and following the other guidelines, most blogs can eventually develop a level of discussion much higher than what we’re seeing now.
Labels: Blog, Chicago Sun-Times, film criticism, Gawker Media, internet comments, Murray Chass, roger ebert
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