Academic Identity
I am assistant professor of Sociology at Barnard College. My book (and my dissertation research) is a comparative study of technology and futures trading, an ethnography of open outcry and electronic traders. My current research is on how art specialists price cultural commodities, particularly how categories and commensuration work in the secondary/resale fine arts market. I teach courses in economic sociology, organizations, and gender.
Professional Identity
I occasionally consult, focusing on organizational change, the future of technology and financial markets, and environmental markets. I do strategic assessments of markets, technology and organizational design, with qualitative and quantitative components. If you are interested, please email me.
Personal Identity
I grew up outside Chicago, and went to school(s) at Wesleyan University, USC, and Northwestern University. I currently live in New York, with a partner who is a marketing manager for an educational nonprofit. I love movies, like to cook, and I can do a mean lindy swing out. I am INTP.
July 17, 2008
Why are comments on Crooked Timber so bad?
Filed under: Ramble — Peter @ 7:07 pm
I read Kieran’s post, essentially a pointer to Bruce Western’s work on the social effects of mass imprisonment, and I’m struck by how much the comments at Crooked Timber just make me sad. It is a virtual showcase of spirit-crushing commentary. We have:
the reflex appeal to Levitt: “You cannot carry out a cost/benefit analysis of maintaining a high prison population unless you seriously consider the benefits.”
the political-swipe-dressed-as-social-science concern trolling: “The author criticises “folk theory of immutable criminality” but we are only ever offered (by leftwing criminologists) correlations between criminality and poverty. I say that this failure to prove causation makes the poverty-causes-crime argument just as much a folk theory.”
the Kurtz-like “Exterminate all the Brutes!” response: “Things will have to get far worse before they can get better. The system will have to collapse before it can be replaced with something more equitable. The Crime of Punishment by Karl Menninger today reads like a alien history from a distant and forgotten past. Which I suppose it is. There is also a good deal of torture going on in those private prison. You’ll never hear about it in the press.”
the stupid-response-followed-by-borderline-ad-hominem attack: “[stupid response].” “If you read the article linked, which deals in part with the effects of the US’s huge prison population on those imprisoned, on those close to them and on society at large, you might appreciate why a response like this is so stupid.”
the imponderable: “Basically, you rent the underclass. You employ all your citizens and pay them decent wages and you invite starving people from abroad to do all the menial work for next to nothing. As soon as a ‘guest worker’ raises his head and gives you a look – you kick him out of the country, no prisons necessary.”
the possibly-though-not-definite bad-faith remark followed by a total slap-down: “[possible bad-faith remark].” “wow virgil, you witnessed it first hand on the nightly news!!? You are a brave soul, venturing so far from your couch to gain real intelligence on the problems facing other peoples’ posses “in the hood”. word!”
This is just a sampling in the 3 hours since the post was published - and this is actually not bad compared to some other threads. The frustrating part is that CT provides such good contributors, and it seems to consist of a large audience of diverse and smart people; it is a deservedly built-up social platform. But I’ve just never seen a comment thread there that carries through with something approaching dignity. I had all prepared this explanation, but I don’t think that covers it. What is going on over thar?
4 Responses to “Why are comments on Crooked Timber so bad?”
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This site is hand-woven, and heavily borrows from the wonderful blueprint framwork. Rock on, grids!
Not quite
, but getting there..
July 17th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
I have to think that the stupidity of comments is positively correlated with readership size. As readership increases, you attract more loons who are more interested in hearing themselves talk than they are in serious discussion. And the effect of size on the number of ridiculous comments is not linear. Stupid comments attract more stupid comments and drive out the people who you’d like to have comment.
I say this because I remember when CT first started (and the readership was somewhat smaller) and I used to love reading the comments section. Sometimes the comments were as good as the posts, very thoughtful. These days I just scan the comments to see what witty sarcasm Kieran’s offering in response to the stupidity.
July 17th, 2008 at 11:07 pm
Sigh. You should see the ones that don’t make it out of the moderation queue. Appropriately enough, I was just reading this.
July 20th, 2008 at 10:21 am
Not to undercut your point, but if you think the comments at CT are bad, you haven’t spent much time in the comments section of other blogs. It’s a miracle that CT’s comments section is as lucid as it is.
July 20th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
So, large audience=stupidity? I don’t buy it, as there are a handful of large-audienced, well-commented sites (Making Light chief among them, but perhaps it’s unfair to make the site with two pro editors the bar here).
Kieran, I like the aggressive deletion from the post you reference..I think it’s interesting how blogging norms are evolving towards ‘don’t just delete comments’ and ‘post when you update rather than just changing it.’ Am I allowed to just say this site is for me and my purposes, so I can delete/change at will, or is that an FU to readers who participate?
Trey, that there are worse means little - I’m guessing there is deep abyss of craptacular commenting sites around the blogosphere, but as I know a couple/few of the CT people, I’m somehow more invested in wanting it to be, well, better. I want my free ice cream to approximate Habermasian perfection in its creation of a public discourse space. And it just seems like CT hits that sweet spot of instant egregious ‘boring’ (in the sense of knee-jerk comments presented as novel w/out getting the point of posts and w/out regard others), where it could spin off into interesting…
Thanks for the thoughts, though, and I do say this about CT out of frustration rather than snark - I hope that comes through.