In light of Omar stepping down from active management of BP, i wanted to share this note. As I have immense respect and gratitude towards Omar I wouldn’t want the brand he and others have built up (and i have contributed a bit) over last decade and half to just go downhill. Despite the success of Substack and X (and video platforms) I feel the BP blog presents nice niche with its moderate reach and past history of extremely insightful authors and commentators – I feel BP is a community/blog worth maintaining into the coming years (and hopefully decades).
Given the recent fracas on the blog and in between its authors and commentators, I think we ought to indulge in some moderation – how much is the question that can only be addressed as we go ahead.
In light of this i hope to:
- Write a bit more frequently on the blog.
- Moderate comments (not every day) and weed out filthy content which crosses a certain red line. I generally tend to be pretty liberal with my tolerance for free speech so i hope i do not indulge in too much censoring. XTM can take his call – everyone sees moderation different and being the admin and founder – his authority on moderation (along with Razib) will be the final call. But i know even he is pretty liberal with respect to comments.
- Where i think reasonable standards will apply viz commenting are BP authors. It lowers the Brand of Brown pundits if people who are authors on this platform indulge in trollish and racist behavior. All always authors can moderate their threads as they deep fit instead of indulging in shitposting with trollish comments. If someone wants to have a banter in comments I hope they remember this line. I am in no way an authority but i think what i have written here wrt different standards for authors makes sense.
As I have mentioned above I do have pretty liberal standards with speech. Giving a concrete example – I did not find the jibe “subhuman” or jibe as Elitist/Islamist/Brahmanical/Fascist (ideological) as crossing a Red-Line in general. Context is important and one off comment of such nature doesn’t alarm me (It might be a redline for someone else i do not disagree) – even if directed at me. After all isnt a Troll also a subhuman ? but we are fine to call people we disagree with as low IQ trolls all the time without getting offended. Having said this – different standards ought to apply to authors but i would leave it to XTM (though i would drop him a line)
I hope i am able to stay regularly active on this space as and when time permits. As XTM has said multiple times, moderating in a thankless mandate and i hope i can slightly reduce his burden going forward.
I am in broad agreement but now that the structures are super clear.
I would prefer a more moderated blog with a lighter commentariat then one where they are popping off.
more light than heat; thank you Gaurav
Good to have you Gaurav! Moderating is truly a thankless task. All the best.
I think that it would be best if commentors focus on the argument being made and not the person making the argument (I know that this is at times difficult and I have been guilty of not adhering to this myself). To give an example, I don’t appreciate being called an “Islamist” especially when I’ve made it clear so many times that that is a misrepresentation. Words have meanings. An “Islamist” is someone who advocates for Sharia law–something which I have never once done. I have no issues with people disagreeing with my politics. But they can do that without using this word.
Certain people took great offense at XTM’s coining the term “Saffroniate”. So I guess that falls in the same category.
On “subhuman”– My personal opinion is that this is a casteist term. It is inherently an attack on someone’s dignity.
I don’t think “subhuman” is comparable to “troll”. Trolling (on the internet) describes a particular kind of behavior. It’s a description of the behavior rather than an inherent attack on the person.
I don’t agree subhuman is casteist fwiw but it doesn’t demean the insult