On Comments Off

On Thursday, the other half of Onward, Manchester posted Comments Off, wading into the debate about online abuse on comments boards. In part, this piece was prompted by our own experiences; more specifically, mine. You see, I've recently been writing a series entitled Tales of a Go-Nowhere Indie Band, a true account of my time spent playing music. In part three, I wrote the following:

"Months later, after I had finally quit the band, I had a habit of bumping into the guy who had helped engineer the session, and every time he would tell me how much he hated our lead guitarist's vocals."

My ex-bandmates discovered these pieces, and presumably the aforementioned line upset them (nothing else stands out as particularly inflammatory), prompting a mini-backlash of sorts. I included the line because it added colour; whether or not that was a mistake is, I suppose, debatable; however, given that it was an accurate retelling of events I had every right to use it. What followed was a couple of attacks: the first was a negative comment left using a pseudonym that was easy to see through because the email address it was sent from contained the real name of the person in question (not to mention their IP address); the second was an attempt at intimidation by pretending to be someone from our shared past.

The incidents, as you might expect, left a sour taste. And yet I still would not choose to join the ranks of those advocating the elimination of comments boards altogether. Such forums do serve a purpose, and can be used to foster positive and constructive conversation and debate. It's difficult to even make a convincing argument for greater accountability and regulation; how on earth would one go about regulating free speech? It can't be done without entering into dangerous territory concerning what can and cannot be said. Fortunately, most people know how to self-regulate, and understand the difference between acceptable and unacceptable online behaviour.

Of course, adopting this stance leaves anyone who wants to publish their work in the not-too-pleasant position of having to endure whatever misguided, asinine, or threatening things people bearing grudges or different opinions may send their way. Recently, Helen Lewis Hasteley and a number of other female bloggers have been writing thoughtfully and intelligently about how truly abhorrent and repulsive commenters can be; indeed, the abuse they have had levelled at them serves to highlight how minor the slights I suffered were. Even more so considering that my tale has a happy ending. A couple of weeks ago, I was sat three rows behind the aforementioned individuals at an Adam Buxton show, during which the comic relentlessly took the piss out of people who spend their time posting negative comments on the Internet whilst hiding behind anonymous usernames.

I can't imagine they enjoyed his performance half as much as I did.