[Tango-L] Tango Teacher & DJ Reviews :: New Blog

[Carol Shepherd]

Alex,

I think Trini has good suggestions.  I think that the comments would trend to
the negative and several will be very personal and poisonous.  If you require
people to register with a name, as opposed to leaving anonymous comments, at
least they will have to put a public persona on their dialogue.  (That seems to
not inhibit anyone on here, so I would require it on a blog as well.)  I would
also freely delete excessively negative comments that have no constructive
criticism in them -- but be aware that if you do act as a publisher and change
the wording in comments (other than to excise obscenity, etc) you run the risk
of losing your legal immunity against defamation (I'm sorry to get all legal on
you, and I'm certainly not your lawyer, nor trying to be your lawyer, but you
should read this article: http://bit.ly/c3Rd).

I have a couple of clients who have a lot of controversy associated with the
books they publish, and they have established a 'forum' in BBS style separate
from the blog, so the separation of what they will moderate and what they won't
is very clear. It's become an internet convention that on a BBS, anything goes.
  That's true on many blogs, too, but I think that on a blog hosted by an
individual there is a presumption that the comment content is being at least
monitored, if not edited by the blog host (as opposed to a blog hosted by an
organization or a news media outlet like the NYT, where people assume the opposite.)

I think you have a fantastic idea and it could be a great resource, but I fear
you are going to have your hands full, particularly when you consider the stiff
winds that blow on this list.

My $0.02.

cs

Trini y Sean (PATangoS) wrote:
> Alex,
> 
> I appreciate your efforts, but I don't think that leaving comments anonymously is very fair to the instructors.  If someone is going to post critically about someone, they should accept responsiblility for their words.  They don't need to leave an email address, but perhaps a first name and city is fair.  Heck, technically, they could even come up with a false name, but I think it would be wise to make them think about what they write.
> 
> Also, some guidelines would be good, such as being specific, not just "this person sucks".  Otherwise, the site could just become a "_itch session".
> 
> Trini de Pittsburgh
> 
>

-- 


Carol Ruth Shepherd, Esq.
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