Comments Aren't Free

"the laborer retains, even after he has received his wages, a natural right of property in the thing which he has produced." Proudhon

A battle is raging in the (yawn) blogosphere between the liberal left and libetarian right over guido fawkes and other's comments policies.

In what's largely a sparring match between Tim Ireland and guido the temperature is hotting up as these two petulant (probably) ex-public schoolboys trade insults in an attempt to wrestle control of the internet.

Poor old Tim is sulking and spoiling for a scrap whilst guido merely gloats at the traffic spike this row has given his blog.

Tim seems to think he has the right to demand certain changes to guido's blog, including barring anonymous comment makers and including a time and date stamp all comments. And who put Tim in charge, well it seems he did, Tim tells us:

"Those of you who know what I've been up to these past few years will know that I helped make a lot of firsts happen in political blogging, and I am still doing things right now that won't be done on a widespread basis for at least a few years. Call me self-important if you like" link

We feel more inclined to call you a prick after those comments Tim. He also warns:

"the next General Election will involve a compromising mess for all concerned... including any nearby bystanders."

Well who cares, if it helps to bring about an end to this shabby facade laughingly called democracy then we're all for it here. Guido's response is that it's his blog and his property and he shall do with comments as he pleases.

Now if it's true as Tim alleges that guido posts anonymously and manipulates his comments then we reckon that's a bit lame. However as he claims, his blog is primarily for entertainment and he has a right to attempt to ensure that the comments remain interesting, witty and relevant. Sadly he fails miserably, but that's not entirely his fault, tory wannabes are rarely known for their wit or creativity.

So cautiously we find ourselves agreeing with guido. There are many places on the net for robust political debate, we'd recommend trying urban 75 or perhaps libcom for those of a more radical left persuasion.

Alternatively anyone is free to set up their own blog and spout garbage to their hearts content. Tim and his chum's demand for universal freedom of speech on every blog is unworkable and unwantable (is that a word?). We never did buy that dictatorship of the proletarian line here at the void.

We have a similiar position on comments to guido. Occasionally we might drunkenly engage in political debate. More often we can't be arsed.

Since we have taken the time to write this blog and courted our ever growing readership then we see no reason why bigoted little self-indulgent rants should pollute the comments section. It's not about censorship, it's about aesthetics.

Having said that we rarely delete comments (beggars can't be choosers after all) but we'd really prefer them to be on topic, intelligent and ideally funny. We can take insults, we can even take out and out abuse, but boring political diatribes have no real place here at the void (unless you're an anarchist of course, in which case we're likely to go easy on you). So a double standard, you betcha, deal with it.

We're not here to give a platform to the far right and we won't. That said we have had some rightwingers on here that we'd grown rather fond of ...

... come back Joe90, all is forgiven.

As for claims that because of the likes of guido then MP's and politicians refuse to take blogs seriously, well we're betting John Prescott and Simon Hughes take blogs pretty fucking seriously indeed.

The above pic is taken from guido by the way, it's been said that anarchy is simply good manners and we reckon it's only good manners to credit people for their work (this policy of course doesn't apply to the corporate press, who let's face it have been fucking us over for years). The charge that guido doesn't always do this sticks and is symbolic of the right's natural instinct to gain capital from the work of others.

UPDATE: We made tim aware of this post earlier in the day here, he asked us to provide a source for the quote of his, which we have duly done.

He also made a sarcastic comment which began with the statement 'clever boy, clever boy', that comment now appears to have disappeared from tim's blog replaced witth a more sedate and mature comment.

So it seems that comment manipulation isn't just the preserve of guido.

In summary case closed, they're both as bad as each other and this pompous spat will receive no more attention here at the void.