I’ve always thought the fun of blogging was the interaction with other people, the exchange of thoughts and ideas and POVs. It seems other people (most people?) have a different take on it.
There was a blog I followed, and read, on WordPress that was often amusing. I commented infrequently since there was little to comment on besides the usual bland ‘Nice post”. This person occasionally says “Please remember my comment policy and post your disagreements elsewhere.”
And that gets a Wow from me.
If I ever write something that you have a different take on, please do not hesitate to share your thoughts. I welcome them. Obviously civil discourse is a requirement. We can even agree to disagree.
I joke a lot about pumpkin spice belonging only in pie, my pumpkin spice loving readers know I am tweaking them and I hope we both get a laugh from it.
I’ve read some push-back on the agree-to-disagree.
“Agree to disagree but also that I am right” or “…you are wrong” is not what I am talking about. That’s unacceptable in my book. There is no respect in that sort of exchange.
Sometimes the problem I face is that someone who is dear to me may voice an opinion that I find – um, uncomfortable. I don’t engage them on it, that is just a waste of time because no one can change another person’s POV; people have to come to that on their own. Yes, you can present them with facts or well reasoned opposing views, what they do with it is up to them.
I don’t think I write about any controversial subjects anymore, music and books just aren’t that divisive. At least not the ones I write about.
Not talking about the current book-banning bru-ha-ha going on now. And no I don’t support book banning, I do support a parent’s right to decide when it’s appropriate to discuss certain topics with their children. I also believe when a person reaches the age of 12 or so they should be free to make whatever reading choices interest them.
The problem with that of course is that children are exposed to such a wide range of human experience at such early ages, despite whatever controls the parents have imposed, discussions may come sooner than later. I think a lot of parents are not comfortable with that.
My personal views range from the very conservative to the very liberal. And sometimes both on the same topic. Humans are complicated and very little is straight up black or white. There are certainly more than 50 shades of grey.
And there are folks who will disagree with me on that.
When I was young I had no problem with absolutes, I favored them. Now – not so much, maybe not at all. I have my own biases to deal with.
Now that I’ve got that off my chest, it’s getting on to late morning, still not super hot, time to shower and dress, looking forward to thunderstorms this afternoon, may they come early and stay late.
Subject to Change Without Notice 
I sometimes see comment policy disclaimers like that, and I tend to think that such disclaimers are unlikely to deter people who want to leave uncivil comments, so does it really accomplish much? I've learned to keep my mouth shut and just move on when it comes to certain issues like abortion; I'm not going to change their mind and they're not going to change mine, so there's really no point.
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If we all thought and said the same thing, what a boring world this would be! My experiences are different than anyone else so I remain open to what others say because I may learn something or at least confirm that I'm already doing what's best for me. Either way, no skin off my back if someone has different views than me! Even when I did have a 'friend' go off the conspiracy theory deep end hook, line and sinker, I was fascinated by the whole psychology of how in the hell can that happen? Lol! As for the book banning, is there really a book where a kid will take the time to read and learn something worse than what they can find on the internet in a matter of seconds? It's all ridiculous!
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If I saw a comment policy like that she would never get another comment from me of any kind. I could understand her saying feel free to disagree but be kind and respectful. I've always appreciated hearing other points of view.
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It depends on the age I think – 5/6/7 even 8 year olds might get exposed to something in a book that they can't process and if they have parents that are, how shall we say, over protective, and if they ask questions the parent's don't want them to have the answers to…well you can see where some people are all in favor of no one reading those books. When the granddaughters were here last Summer, they were 2 and 4, I had Frankie's memorial box with her ashes on a table in the living room. I put it away because I know the girls would ask about it, it has her photo on the front, and I don't know what discussions their parents have had with them, if any, about death. It's not my place to explain it to them.Children mature at different ages – the ideal situation is for parents to be open to all questions but we know that is not possible. If people were non-judgemental and open, book banning wouldn't even be a topic.
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It's not a disclaimer as such, it is not on all their posts, most of which are innocuous. The first time I saw it I thought the person meant disagreeable as in rude/uncivil, the latest time I saw it it was exactly as quoted above. I take that to mean if anyone has any other opinion or thoughts on the subject they weren't welcome. And that is a Wow to me. Why even have comments at all in that case? To puff up your ego with everyone agreeing? It just bugged me. Blogging and commenting is bugging me – I'm dying for a conversation!
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Exactly! I thought of commenting did she mean any other opinion or simply unkind/rude/uncivil but I bet that comment would have been deleted. (I don't know that for sure now but that's the sense I get from reading even the innocuous posts.)
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“Please remember my comment policy and post your disagreements elsewhere.” I have just read that line also and was intrigued but only because l am yet to create my own comment policy. Like you l am not writing anything controversial these days – but there are some strange folks who are absolute die hards when it comes to composting strangely enough. However l do welcome a difference of opinion. I always liked that about you Grace – your directness – that was fresh. I am not at all supportive of trolling or just plain disrespect, but l too read that and though mm, that's interesting. Rory
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Hey Rory! Hi 👋 Hi 👋 Hi 👋 Miss you much! 💔 How ARE you? I really want to like that blogger, sometimes they are very amusing but twice in one week now there was that – 'if you have another opinion from mine just bugger off” – disagreeing and being disagreeable are not the same thing. No big deal in the great scheme of things, I just stopped following them. I was never a big commenter on that blog anyway. But like I said to Ashley I'm craving some conversation…
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I am good – still building and just being generally busier. Suze got back from down under nearly two weeks ago and she has been busy seeing people that she hasn't seen in nearly four months. Last couple of days seriously busy in the garden. Conversation is at times lacking, but l'll be back soon enough and l am sure there will be bits that you'll like :)It's not really a business blog really, more like a broad niche on wildlife and conservation that also talks about worms and compost and the country 🙂
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Looking forward to it – How shall we find it? I went looking for the 'Guy' blog to just read old posts and it's not there, or at least I can't find it.
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Certainly a matter of perspective. It makes sense to have that attitude (of “don't argue with me”) if you regard blog posts as a formal publication. Or — my interpretation of the comment disclaimer in question — someone just sick and tired of angry or aggressive and confrontational feedback, and they're like, take it somewhere else. I assumed that in this case there had been comments like that but they were deleted quickly and we never saw them. Maybe it would all make sense it we had. My comment policy, if I had to declare one, would be “improve the silence.” Implicit in that request would be, emphasis on “improve.” With comments, it's hard to know how much to bat an argument back and forth. My feeling is, once is fine, but more if it's civil and/or interesting.
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Me again. I just dug deeper into the post I think you're talking about. I think the post was definitely political in nature, and a reminder about abusive comments would certainly be appropriate given the way people get all fired up nowadays if you just touch on any of these politically divisive issues.
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As people often say on blogs – “This is my blog and I'll say whatever I want”. It's really none of my business is it? I found it odd and off-putting but that's MY reaction. I have no idea what the person's intent was/is or why they feel the need to write that. If I read something that makes me uncomfortable then I just stop reading. For whatever reason this bothered me, I wrote about it, now it's over done. And like most of the stuff I write my post was all over the place – one thought leads to another.
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Was it? political in nature? I must admit I did not read it closely, I wasn't sure what they were talking about and therefore it was of no real interest to me – that one sentence caught my attention. But again, none of this if of any importance – just me noticing something that I don't quite understand and possibly misinterpreting. I'm just missing the old days when we had more in-depth comment conversations.
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Hey Grace, once it's live l'll drop you a note on your blog here 🙂 I deleted the old Guy blog for many reasons, one of the main ones was that blog was sitting on a huuuge plan – Business – l had well over £250 worth of credits but that could only be spent on a eCommerce blog upgrade which l didn't need and my next step down was a pro Plan which was still too big for the Guy's needs whilst a freebie would have been too small.Some of the Guy series are present or rather will be present in Earthly. Gardening is there albeit changed to simply be 'Willow Garden' and some of the walking journal aspects will be present as well. Galleries are there also with three, two of interest to you directly and one not so much. Wild Walks and Natural Encounters will be the ones you like. Whilst Worm Gallery not. I think The Country Life Style Diary will be of interest to you and maybe some of the series from Earthen Tales which covers all sorts of wildlifey bits – like The Garden Restaurant, Tales from the Apothecary, Flora With Attitude, Growings on the Wild Side, Tales from Gazen Salts, Species Guide Directory, The Wildlifer, Shop Tales Directory and The Gallery so there is quite a bit that is not the obviousness that l was talking about at the start of last year.It'll not be the typical business blog, it's not a personal blog and not a business, more like a defined niche but with a twist, it's very much me of today whereas Guy was dealing mostly with me yesterday.There are of course aspects as you would expect covering composting and worm farming, but in essence they are surprisingly small in consideration. Plus because l am not going to maintain a true business blog [it just isn't me] and that is because YES there is a business but that business will be here at home with the actual physical units of worms farms and my first sales will be local, then national and then who knows afterwards.From next year, the business side will be present moore, but only in the form of affiliate advertising and most of the current advertising will be my own designs – the collections of which are being recreated and many have simply been taken out.This blog is actually about conversation more than many might think 🙂 I think you will like it.
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You know I love the photos from around town – the alleyways and streets – always catch my attention especially when rendered in B/W and lord knows I love flowers…I think the topics you list for “The Country Life Style Diary” sound really interesting – looking forward to exploring with you!
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Well here's the introduction to the Country Life Style Diary – it gives the reader everything they need to know in a glance – IntroductionThis feature was inspired during a country walk l was enjoying one very early Sunday morning this year in May 2022. What l wanted to have was an open sandbox community feature of sorts that would encourage interaction and creativity from the readership, including myself.That would have the makeup of a ‘scrapbook’ or country journal with exciting snippets and tales of life, recipes, musings, hints and tips and garden hacks, creativity and prompts, poems and artwork and photography and interviews with like-minded writers, gardeners and composters, environmentalists and conservationists alike.A place that would give rise to friendly and social observation, conversation and chatter, like a coffee morning. A diversion from the daily bump and grind of everyday hummdrummery!A place to have and share a laugh, a golden nugget of wisdom and have your say. Talks of walks, scribbles and doodles, nature trail tales, snippets of interest, and things that simply innocently tickle one’s fancy and reminiscing moments from yesterday.The Country Life Style Diary is like the scrapbook some of us had as kids growing up, that secret place between the pages where we hid cherished moments of our lives.
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Oh sounds great! Now get cracking and get this live!
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I unerstand this oh too well Grace
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Yeah, political in that a conservative media outlet was propagating the story, which is enough to push a bunch of buttons, I've noticed. I'm with you on the attitude about comments. I had a lot of fun in the “old” days with Usenet, and I miss that, but the back and forth of comments comes close. Blogging without comments would be sort of like talking to a wall. It's funny that a lot of Internet institutions create platforms for creativity–actually I guess all of them do–which sort of means you have an audience, and hopefully some feedback or socializing in some form.
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I don't read conservative media outlets, that's not where I saw it and truth to tell I didn't know what the hell they were referring to – just that sentence popped out at me having seen something similar earlier on that same blog. Anyway – I'm over it LOL
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Hey Peggy! Hope you will have a decent week – your current situation sucks farts!
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