A first step towards civilization.

I have been silent for a week, as I said I would be. I write now, not out of any particular motive to write, but because I promised to have a decision in a week - so a decision I must post.

I have decided to take an interim step towards improving the experience of writing this blog. From this moment forth, there shall be no anonymous comments on my blog. It is my hope that this step, alone, will be enough to restore sufficient civility to the comments I have been receiving. Should it not do so, I will strengthen the limitations on who can post, on my blog, and even who can read it.

From now on, anyone with a blogger account or an OpenID can post on this blog. I am sorry if you have neither and you wish to post - you will just have to get an ID. For four years, I allowed all readers the privilege - and it is a privilege - of posting anonymously, out of a misguided belief that some people might have sensitive things to say, that required them to protect themselves with anonymity. However, the opposite thing happened. People with INSENSITIVE things to say, abused the privilege to hurl invective, spite and sheer nastiness whenever I wrote something they disagreed with. So, it has to stop. If you have something to say...you must now do so, in the open, with a name and an ID.

Now, should the unpleasant remarks not stop with Open ID and blogger, I will restrict the permissions further, to just blogger members. If that doesn't work, then I will restrict the READERSHIP, to invited people only. If that doesn't work, I will have a private blog, readable only by the author.

I am tired of reading abusive comments from often less than perfectly sane readers - or less than perfectly pleasant, anyway. I hope that this first step towards achieving a civil blogging experience will be enough to attain it. If not, I have already outlined the successive steps I will take to gradually restrict access to commenting on this blog and eventually to even reading the blog. I would prefer not to have to restrict the blog further, but I shall do so, if the net nastiness continues.

I hope to have a better blogging experience, from now on. We shall see.

Thank you to all those who wrote letters expressing appreciation of my writing (under the previous post) and asking me to continue. I have weighed those words and decided that I should take this minimal first step towards restoring "civilization" to my blog, before taking any more drastic steps. Let's hope it works. Thanks.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 6 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to:
http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/
Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/
Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)

Is it worth writing a blog?

I am led, today, to ask whether it is worth writing a blog. Now, this might seem like a funny question from someone who has written about 1400 posts...but it is one that has been prompted by the experience of the past few week or so.

I have been receiving enormously offensive, hurtful and spiteful anonymous comments - which I have not posted - on some of my recent articles, in particular the one about Singapore's Intellectual Class. The venom in these comments is so intense, so violent, so disgusting, that it has brought me to the point at which I am considering not writing anymore, on the internet.

Whilst the internet affords many opportunities for positive self expression, it also allows the worst people in the world, to attack others, anonymously. I am very tired of it. I write, always, for a positive purpose. I am trying to achieve some good in the realm of ideas, understanding and social development. Yet, sometimes, I am viciously attacked for it - in an extraordinarily abusive fashion. It isn't right.

Now, I must say, I do enjoy and have enjoyed my correspondence with many interesting, intelligent, thoughtful, and even kindly people around the world. Yet, so intense is the unpleasantness of some of my recent anonymous commenters, that I am thinking of foregoing these pleasures, so that I never have to endure the insanely hostile comments I have been receiving, ever again.

I realize that I have two choices I can make: the first is to stop writing altogether, never post again and turn off all comments so that I never have to receive any more hate mail. The second choice, is a "halfway house" - and that is to turn off anonymous comments, and see if that improves the tone and civility of the comments I receive.

I shall decide in one week from today. So, please, if you are a civil anonymous commenter, feel free to comment in that period. Thereafter, please secure yourself an online id, if I decide to continue blogging and receiving comments, with identification. (4.53 pm I am enjoying our correspondence, so please get yourself an online ID, if you wish to continue...)

I will add this: if all my readers could see the unpostable anonymous hate mail I have received over the years, you too would not want to write anymore. You would also have a very low impression of that portion of "humanity" that would shelter behind anonymity to hurl hate, spite and insult, at another human being, who is simply trying to express ideas in a way that they can be understood.

I have some thinking to do on this matter. I would like to thank everyone who has commented intelligently, benignly, productively or humanely. I have had many enjoyable internet conversations, through you. Thank you very much. As for the hate mailers: why are so many of you American? (Many of the others are Singaporean). Just what is wrong with those two countries that they can breed so much hate? Given the kind of sentiments I have seen expressed by a minority of commenters, from those two countries, I really don't think I could ever live, in either place. I would not be comfortable, living there, knowing that there are people in the society around me, capable of writing such things, to people they have never met. It is loathsome.

Thank you to all those who are worth thanking. As for the others, I hope fate gives you what you deserve. I shall decide soon. Either this blog will fall silent, forever, or there shall be no more anonymous comments permitted.

(If you would like to learn more of Ainan Celeste Cawley, 10, or his gifted brothers, Fintan, 6 and Tiarnan, 4, this month, please go to:
http://scientific-child-prodigy.blogspot.com/2006/10/scientific-child-prodigy-guide.html

I also write of gifted education, child prodigy, child genius, adult genius, savant, megasavant, HELP University College, the Irish, the Malays, Singapore, Malaysia, IQ, intelligence and creativity.

My Internet Movie Database listing is at: http://imdb.com/name/nm3438598/
Ainan's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3305973/
Syahidah's IMDB listing is at http://imdb.com/name/nm3463926/

Our editing, proofreading and copywriting company, Genghis Can, is at http://www.genghiscan.com/

This blog is copyright Valentine Cawley. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited. Use only with permission. Thank you.)