Jason Calacanis’ Facebook bankruptcy aside [via AVC], Jason decided to shut off comments on his blog. I have no problem with people shutting off blog comments. It’s an editorial decision, and so be it. People have requested that I turn off commenter registration here, but I’m in no hurry to do so. However, I respect the request, its inspiration, the person making the request, etc.
Jason, on the other hand, writes things like this:
If you don’t have a blog–which takes 10 minutes to setup–then maybe you’re not worthy of commenting, or others reading your comments.
I like Jason, enjoy spending time with him in general, had a great time at this blogger dinner, etc., but this kind of elitist attitude is uncalled for — and worse, it’s bad business. If, as some people accuse, Mahalo is really about elitism and building a new, walled search garden, then it won’t work. Moderation is sometimes necessary, but universal free speech is what really drives democracy and web sites.
Jason’s requirement that people own a blog to have a voice is the pale Web2 shadow voting rights requirements in the US 200 years ago. It was a terrible idea then (with much more concrete impact on people’s lives than this situation, of course), didn’t scale, and is something about which we should all be embarrassed in retrospect.
[...] Like Scott Rafer, I am more than a little disturbed by Jason’s comment that: “If you don’t have a blog – which takes 10 minutes to setup – then maybe you’re not worthy of commenting, or others reading your comments.” [...]
well put scott - i like jason too, in person - online not so much - some people are just that way, not sure why though…
if you’re decent in person seems like you should be decent online, or at least strive to be the same person…
[...] Scott Rafer at Winksite Site Discovery, Social Media Optimization (SMO), and Disrupting Mobile Carriers « Calacanis and his Editorial High Horse [...]
[...] Maybe Scott Rafer got to him? Posted by David B. Filed in General Comment on this post! var disqus_url = ‘http://www.daveberube.com/blog/2007/11/general/calacanis-comment-love/ ‘; var disqus_title = ‘Calacanis Comment Love?’; var disqus_message = ‘Woah, I must have missed something somewhere, but when did Jason Calacanis start accepting comments on his blog?%0AMaybe Scott Rafer got to him?%0A’; View the entire comment thread. [...]