Ah, here we go

[branchandroot]

I was wondering when the comment-importing skirl would start.

And it's true, the transfer of content such as comments lies in a rather strange and precarious area. There are two major competing precedents I can see.

One is the correspondence precedent, which says that comments on a blog are as personal email--they are personal communication whose copyright is retained wholly by the originator and which may not be transferred or copied without permission, beyond such quotation as may be covered by fair use. This is complicated by the public nature of a comment and the fact that acceptance or rejection of its publication is in the hands of the blog owner as well as the comment author.

The other is the contributor or submission (or even 'letters to the editor') precedent, which might consider comments to be as articles or notes, contributed or submitted to the 'editor', that is the blog owner, and subject to publication, deletion and republication at the editor's will, though only under the original terms of access/remuneration/etc. This is complicated by the personal nature of a comment and fact that no blog/journal site I know of has any explicit statement to the above effect.

Personally, I think DW has struck about the best balance that can be struck in this push-pull, by ensuring there is no content alteration, retaining all original access and terms and providing (currently in the works) a mechanism for mass screening by the comment author.

Comments

[helens78]

I really like the balance DW struck here -- but I have to admit I'm one of the people who thinks that a.) once I comment to a journal owner, I'm leaving my words in their hands -- after all, in the greater blogosphere, many systems allow you to freely edit comments, thus making them look like they've said anything the blog owner wants them to say, and b.) if I can exercise control over them once they've been posted (as you can with OpenID), I haven't lost any control I could conceivably need.

I agree it's a really sticky issue -- but I think it's only a really sticky issue because LJ is a system that's always been a closed system up until now, rather than having the ability to export comments and, more importantly, re-upload them, with any sort of automation. If it had been built into LJ from the get-go, I doubt people would be freaking out about it now, any more than anyone who'd commented on my WoW blog complained when I switched from [domainname1].com to [domainname2].com.

What I'm not really understanding is the people who say "I blame Dreamwidth for making that ability available; I don't blame anyone who used it at all." That just completely confuses me. "I don't blame my friend for throwing a snowball at me; I blame the weather for putting snow on the ground! Regardless of how many people are happily skiing and sledding and who clearly like the snow! Snow is bad because I could conceivably get hit with a snowball -- but it isn't the fault of anyone who actually throws a snowball at me!"

[branchandroot]

*nods* Yeah, I can see both sides, but I think the "screen everything" mechanism should be enough to satisfy those who don't want their comments transfered. LJ has long had a very strong faction of "your journal is your personal space and you control it absolutely", so I can't see that this is any kind of departure.

*wry* I think the people saying things like that are the ones who are taking an excuse to hate DW. While trying not to get in the bad books of their actual friends and acquaintances. I try not to pay attention to people who can't use Earth logic.

[helens78]

Agreed on both counts. *nods*

[dancing_serpent]

I think the people saying things like that are the ones who are taking an excuse to hate DW.

Yeah, that's the impression I got, too. To quote someone else: I don't want that openID in the first place since I don't want to use DW, but if I want to stop them from hosting my content on their site, I'm forced to use the site first. I wanted to stay away from DW altogether, and I'm not okay with them making it impossible for me to do so.

It was a comment on an open entry by fourth_rose and it was linked on metafandom, so I'm not feeling guilty for quoting it here.

[branchandroot]

*hand over eyes* How many times... OpenID is something the silly chit already /has/.

And as for "omg, I have to /touch/ it!", I'm sorry, I didn't have any sympathy for that excuse in Home Ec, either, when the princesses didn't want to dump out the drain catcher because there was /food/ in it, just imagine. *snorts*

[dancing_serpent]

Yeah, she crossposted that entry to LJ and got lots of comments there. Someone pointed the openID thing out to her, too. It kind of degenerates into expressions of hurt feelings and stubbornness.