Blog of Joe turned off comments!

[trogdor]

It was inevitable, considering that at least 85% of the comments came from the opposition, which wasted no time ripping apart every post. Here is blogmaster Eric Blankenbaker's whiny announcement:
--------------------------------------------------
We wanted to alert our readers that as of this morning we are removing the comment feature from our blog.

The reason behind this decision will be obvious to any one who has spent time reading the barrage of ugly, insulting and hateful comments that some Lamont supporters have been posting by the hundreds.

We knew we were taking a risk by not moderating or censoring the comments section. But it was our hope to provide an open, engaging forum, even if it meant tolerating a fair amount of criticism from our opponents.

When we saw the disturbing direction most of the Lamont supporters were heading after the first two days, we posted an appeal for them to tone it down -- to show some respect for the fact that we were allowing them to make their voice heard on our site, to stop with the personal attacks on Senator Lieberman and our staff, and to stop posting under our staff member's names.

Sadly, our appeal went nowhere. There were a handful of respectful criticisms and legitimate questions. But for the most part the tenor of the comments got worse. Also, much to our consternation, a leading Connecticut newspaper printed one of the fake comments that someone posted under my name and attributed the quote directly to me. Not least of all, several of our supporters made clear that the harassing and offensive nature of most of the comments discouraged them engaging on our blog.

As a result, we felt we had no choice but to end this experiment and remove what had become nothing more than a destructive distraction.
------------------------------------------
Yep, destructive. Mistake #1 was using HaloScan, which allows any schmuck (yes, people were accused of anti-Semitism by the few Joe-fans for calling someone that) to post under any name with no visible means of moderation. This is how the Lieberman uses the Internets - like a little old lady whose grandson just bought her a computer last Christmas - and it's not like Team Joe couldn't afford to pay real professionals; they just couldn't get any. Bwahahahahahahaha!

[Richard Steele]

1. Ooh, am I psychic or what? (what)

Someone should tell Joe I'm doing these as SATIRE;
he really shouldn't be taking his campaign ideas
from me!

[napi21]

2. I never even went to his web site! It's not worth my time!

Too bad theopposition messages didn't seem to get through his think head though. Turning off the blog is akin to sticking your head in the sand and thinking all your opposition will just go away!

[gratuitous]

3. Freakin' idjits

Does anyone at that campaign even know how to work a computer?

[CarlVK]

4. Shut down dissent. How REPUBLICAN of the old bastard.