A Carrot for ‘Real’ Comment Contributors

I was walking our dogs through a blanket of crisp oak leaves this morning, pondering the state of Dot Earth after two years, nearly 800 posts and tens of thousands of reader comments that reflect the variegated, and deeply divided, state of thinking on many issues, but especially global warming.

Some readers have said they’ve abandoned the blog because of a drumbeat of repetitive voices challenging the deep consensus on risks posed by the greenhouse-gas buildup. As I explained in a response to one critical reader this morning, I still think that keeping commentary unconstrained (except by rules on topicality and politeness) remains preferable to clapping hands over one’s ears in the “I can’t hear you” form of discourse practiced in so many places these days.

That said, I do think there may be a way to offer carrots that might foster a more constructive discourse and less of a constant, soulless and enervating debate.

The carrot will be something I’ve done irregularly, but will now do more routinely. I’ll build standalone posts around particularly cogent comments — whatever the point of view — but only when the contributor is someone whose identity is open.

The highlighting will not reflect whether I agree or disagree, simply that this is someone staking a personal claim to a certain framing of an issue or idea. I thank Lou Gold down in Brazil for prompting this to some extent, in part by drawing my attention to Andrew Sullivan’s notion that managing The Daily Dish is somewhat akin to being a deejay for ideas. Some anonymous contributors here say they remain so to protect themselves at work or to avoid becoming the target of attacks outside of the blog. That’s fine. There’s no “stick” to counterbalance the carrot, and they are welcome to keep firing away.

I’m trying this on the assumption that personal communication tends to come with less invective.

Early on, I ran a “Meet the Neighbors” post, showing the faces of contributors who created YouTube video greetings or sent photographs of themselves. I think it helped remind other readers that there are human beings behind all that text. The first highlighted comment will come a bit later Friday. It’s by Elizabeth Tjader, whom you can “meet” here: