The Rush Limbaugh Rule
Ed Kemmick wrote in about last week's post on Blogs as Public Space: "I wasn't doing much surfing lately and somehow missed your post on the importance of blogs as a public space. But I have seen it now and wanted to say thanks for your kind words about City Lights. It is amazing how everybody who wrote in or spoke to me in person was pleased to see some controls on the blog. Here I thought I was being open-minded and free-spirited by imposing no rules and censoring no comments, but too many people were getting turned off or even afraid to comment for fear of being flamed."
My response: The 'blog as public space' is not as much fun as the 'blog as rant.' I hope it can generate enough revenue for you to get an assistant to deal with the flames and spam. (My own certainly never will.)
By the way, I bet most people (like me) rarely even open the comment window on blogs that provide one. It relates to what I call the Rush Limbaugh Rule. Rush's genius is that he understands that he is much more entertaining than anyone who would ever call in to his show, so he doesn't let them talk. Their role is to suggest topics and egg him on. Few of us, especially journalists, are egotistical enough to pull this off successfully, but that doesn't mean we have to go all the way in the opposite direction.
What do YOU think? Drop a line to info@johnclaytonbooks.com. To receive these posts via email, write to johnclaytonoutreach-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. (You need not put any text in the message.)
My response: The 'blog as public space' is not as much fun as the 'blog as rant.' I hope it can generate enough revenue for you to get an assistant to deal with the flames and spam. (My own certainly never will.)
By the way, I bet most people (like me) rarely even open the comment window on blogs that provide one. It relates to what I call the Rush Limbaugh Rule. Rush's genius is that he understands that he is much more entertaining than anyone who would ever call in to his show, so he doesn't let them talk. Their role is to suggest topics and egg him on. Few of us, especially journalists, are egotistical enough to pull this off successfully, but that doesn't mean we have to go all the way in the opposite direction.
What do YOU think? Drop a line to info@johnclaytonbooks.com. To receive these posts via email, write to johnclaytonoutreach-subscribe@yahoogroups.com. (You need not put any text in the message.)
