Last night I spoke with a friend who informed me that the president of the NAACP was on my site yesterday. She told me how outraged he was by some of the comments he read. For some time now – years, in fact – I have held the opinion that the intellectuals among us do not leave comments on urban blogs.
Point in fact, the president of the NAACP didn’t leave a comment even though he was moved by what he read. The reason for this is people like him don’t want to wade through ignorant, juvenile comments just to find a spot where his comment makes a difference. And people like him know that his comment will be passed over for the ignorant comments that are most popular on urban blogs.
I rarely leave comments on urban blogs for that very reason. This year I have only commented on 2 urban blogs: Necole Bitchie and Style Razzi, because they have elevated their game beyond writing posts which encourages buffoonery in their comment sections.
A new day is dawning: for the first time in history, a biracial man is about to be chosen the democratic nominee. We have to do better on urban blogs because all eyes are on us now.
I realize that as the blog owner, I have a responsibility to set the tone for the comments on my site. So in recent weeks, I have checked myself to make sure that I include more positive posts. I convince myself that there ARE positive thinkers who read my site daily.
When someone whom I respect and admire calls me to complain about the comments, it makes me rethink my reason for converting Sandrarose.com to a blog in the first place. Most of my regular readers remember the old site where there were no comments.
Contrary to popular belief, I do not make money off comments – and neither does any other blog that I know of. We make money off the ads that you see. And regardless if there are 1 or 100 comments – we still get paid (sorry to burst your bubble). The fact is, advertisers don’t care about comments – they care about stats/traffic.
Thank you to independent thinkers like Bird, 2BMe, 2thick, Smokie (even though you’re a hata, lol), Shhh, and others who don’t follow the crowd, and who help to bring balance and thought-provoking ideas to my site. I would like to encourage more independent thinkers to join in.
So to that end, I have banned the ringleaders who I feel are responsible for most of the negativity on my site. Members who attack the opinions of others will also be banned. While I don’t agree with censorship, I do believe that people don’t have the right to disrespect others. If that means there are less comments on my site, then so be it. To those who have been banned: don’t take it personal. Remind yourselves that you didn’t like me anyway, and have a nice day.
