I’m just writing this blog to say adios amigos and senoritas. I was just going to stop posting but then I thought this morning to say my goodbye to inform anyone who may be interested to know why.
I will not be posting any comments or replies to this blog or any other blog for a while, if ever. I used to just read iranian.com and didn’t send articles or emails, but started doing so when the new format changed just about a year ago.
We keep hearing JJ say that the moderation policy is so and so and it is not perfect and he inevitably makes “mistakes”. But I’ve come to the conclusion that these are really not “mistakes”. When you say insults are not welcome in this website and every now and then you write a blog asking others to consider respect and say you are tired of seeing these attacks, yet you let posters attack one another and actually approve their anonymous comments by letting them get filtered and then send them as approved comments and continue to do so even when others are reminding you these are insults, then I can only conclude these are deliberate attempts and approved policy.
We’re pitted against each other like Michael Vick’s fighting dogs. In the name of nothing is sacred, everything from racism and KKK to defamation can roam free. There isn’t any point in debating the obvious, racism and sexism are dead and if it is alive it is because of the racist and sexist in power, but is has lost all legitimacy, this is deliberate for sensationalism. Beyond the useless debate trading insults is just another low. At least when Hajiagha did it, it was under satire.
We have to define what is an insult? Is JJ telling us it depends what our definition of the word IS is? He is our best and brightest writer in this website. Is he insulting our intelligence? It is one thing to discuss virginity but it is another to allow a debater to ask another debater how many men his wife has slept with or that he is pretty sure the other debater has not only cheated but that his wife has also cheated on him too. This is not an insult? Imagine Obama and McCain ask a question like this in a debate! Or any politician, forget politician, imagine you are in a party or get together and one of the guests ask another guest this question.
There are other examples and other posts. This is just an example. I don’t need this shit. None of the contributors need it. No one gets paid here. Everything is voluntary. What is the benefit of having no defined policy or a half-ass one where others can insult the writer? Criticism is good, harsh criticism is even better, insults is bad, it is worse.
I had positions where I’d come to work and see bunch of emails lined up with stuff I thought were wrong, but continued to work because I had to work until I found another position with less hassles and no-good complaints. That was work, this is not work. I gave JJ credit for putting up with a lot shit from the contributors and commentators thinking he must be like the rest of us, not liking these nasty emails and comments and he probably deletes bunch of them because they are too nasty. But I’m thinking that he actually welcomes it and may even enjoy it. Everyone is different, right?
Anyway, starting today I’m going to start looking for other Iranian websites and mediums to see if I can find one where Iranians can interact with each other with respect and if they don’t hopefully the publisher has a policy that prevents abuse and consider it his/her job to stop insults and personal attacks. If I don’t find one, so what? Life is still good. If this websites issues a policy that is clear and applies to everyone, it would be a nice change. If not, it would be same old, same old dog fighting. Let this website be run over. There are still nice pictures and interesting stuff. It is just not a good place to debate and discuss in a civilized manner.
Housekeeping note 6/30/09: the “anonymous” and “approved” comment that made me write this blog when JJ refused to delete it after I flagged it 2 or 3 times on different occasions was later deleted, much later, but I have the offensive quote in my response in that discussion.
