Words, words, words.
June 3, 2008 – 1:07 amPolonius: … What do you read my lord?
Hamlet: Words, words, words.
Polonius: What is the matter, my lord?
Hamlet: Between who?
Polonius: I mean, the matter that you read, my lord.
- Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Prince of Denmark : 2.2 : 191-196
Part of my daily activity on our website is to browse around reading comments left by readers. While I am the primary moderator of reported comments, it’s not mandatory that I review what’s been said each day. I just find the posts intriguing.
Sometimes, a comment submitted to an article is simply an online representation of a tip of the cap for the subject of the story, a photograph contained within, or the author. Some are corrective, others nostalgic. And occasionally for features which I personally find interesting, no comments are left at all.
There are times when, as far as comments go, you can almost hear the virtual crickets chirping through the speakers. Then there are the stories that strike a nerve in the community and the comments stir up a cacophonous roar. These exchanges are the most interesting in my opinion.
If you follow the posts in these more heated conversations from the start, you can almost see the developing walls of opinion rising higher and higher on each side until the middle ground completely disappears below. The infinite force versus the immovable object. I’m right, you’re wrong. Nuh-uh, ya-huh. Even those who protest the continuance of these arguments are, at times, sullied by their own volleys.
And the shroud of anonymity seems to be the anabolic steroid of internet banter. People will say things online that they would never utter face to face, or in a public arena like the floor of a town meeting. But hidden behind a moniker that has no meaning in the real world, venom is spewed, mud is slung, gauntlets are thrown down and complaints are lodged, all by the proverbial man behind the curtain.
It isn’t the arguing that I necessarily find interesting about the online comments. It’s the fact that whether or not you agree with certain ones, they reflect the Island community. The comments left today could have been posted by your neighbor or the person you chatted about the Sox game with while buying your coffee this morning. Even if they are uttered namelessly, they show that people on Martha’s Vineyard have things to say and wish to be heard.
Words, indeed.
Rick Mello is the web administrator at The Martha's Vineyard Times.
2 Responses to “Words, words, words.”
I was wondering. Beyond words, there are bridge hands. I was wondering how your bridge blog was constructed, all manually, character by character, or if you used a bridge program?
tOM
By TomTrottier on Jun 6, 2008
It also shows that those of us who live off island are still interested in what is going on. I started coming to the Island in 1954 and my parents bought a home on Vineyard Avenue Extension in OB. I spent most of my Summers there and even worked at the Captains Table in OB.My best friend is still my best friend after 55 years. We spend time together every year having fun telling stories from our past. My house as my husband refers to it is all Vineyard. Paintings on the walls, clocks, magazines, coasters, tons of sweatshirts, Black Dog hats and special jewelry from Edgartown Scrimshaw. I consider the Island my home. there is nothing that makes me feel so grounded as stepping off the ferry and knowing I can finally relax and just be me.
By Sue on Aug 7, 2008