One poster said Salon letters were informative for an outsider POV to glimpse the left/liberal mindset.

Yikes! What a horrible notion anyone would form an opinion of the left from online letters. I hope the reader also looks at Powerline or FreeRepublic for comparison.

Online fora aren't exactly the creme of the crop on average. Online fora set no bar for participation and the rest of society does, so fora get a disproportionate number of 'rejects' participating.

Mr. Kamiya has raised some very important points, in a thoughtful and respectful voice. Civility seems to be an initial victim of wide, immediate access, and we would all do well to curry more of it in our rushed, overloaded communications and lives.

ARMA virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris

Italiam, fato profugus, Laviniaque venit

litora, multum ille et terris iactatus et alto

vi superum saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram;

multa quoque et bello passus, dum conderet urbem,

inferretque deos Latio, genus unde Latinum,

Albanique patres, atque altae moenia Romae.

Musa, mihi causas memora, quo numine laeso,

quidve dolens, regina deum tot volvere casus

insignem pietate virum, tot adire labores

impulerit. Tantaene animis caelestibus irae?

Urbs antiqua fuit, Tyrii tenuere coloni,

Karthago, Italiam contra Tiberinaque longe

ostia, dives opum studiisque asperrima belli;

quam Iuno fertur terris magis omnibus unam

posthabita coluisse Samo; hic illius arma,

hic currus fuit; hoc regnum dea gentibus esse,

si qua fata sinant, iam tum tenditque fovetque.

Progeniem sed enim Troiano a sanguine duci

audierat, Tyrias olim quae verteret arces;

hinc populum late regem belloque superbum

venturum excidio Libyae: sic volvere Parcas.

Id metuens, veterisque memor Saturnia belli,

prima quod ad Troiam pro caris gesserat Argis---

necdum etiam causae irarum saevique dolores

exciderant animo: manet alta mente repostum

iudicium Paridis spretaeque iniuria formae,

et genus invisum, et rapti Ganymedis honores.

His accensa super, iactatos aequore toto

Troas, reliquias Danaum atque immitis Achilli,

arcebat longe Latio, multosque per annos

errabant, acti fatis, maria omnia circum.

Tantae molis erat Romanam condere gentem!

(weird, that *is* the correct grammar)

one of two, either bitterness and resentment, or you be a drone. taken that way, it's not so bad. and occasionally you get validation from a SuperTroll (an appellation i've taken to heart). so continue to post. being *paid* to think seems truly a Grand Life but the problem is finding something to say (at least it's been so for me). but if someday i do, it is comforting to know that a web site of one's own costs less than a thousand, even including an (amortized) computer.

Thanks! Here, have a beautiful flower. Thanks again.

The basic logistics of online discussions are all wrong for civil conversation taking into account human nature. The basic problem with online fora is they force everyone to discuss with everyone, and quickly devolve into shouting matches.

Two common moderated 'solutions' are:

A) Host moderation - Labor intensive and only recognizes one POV, the moderator. Even 'balanced' moderation such as the MSM demonstrates, tends to produce duopoly.

B) User participated rating/moderation. User participated moderation tends to endorse a limited set of POV and tends to encourage tribal thinking, spurring ratings wars and such.

If #1 in its many forms is still basically dictatorship, #2 is basically feudalism.

A 3rd way is to allows participants to filter for themselves by blocking/allowing other posters for their own reading preferences. An extension of that would allow people to adopt the flags of others dynamically on a per thread basis, so as to limit the viewed set to whoever was engaged in a reciprocal conversation.

Each reader would filter posts in each thread into (3) groups, and have (3) dynamic levels of filtering to choose from:

1) unflagged 'overheard' person, default.

2) actively read person in thread

3) actively filtered person in thread

A) see all comments

B) exclude some based on one's own +/- filters

C) adopt the +/- filters of another poster

That would allow people to hear all, or tailor the discussion for themselves, and it would also encourage better discussions.

Nice piece, Gary. I knew there was a reason I liked this site. Keep'em coming.

Being able to post comments on Salon is the major reason I keep renewing my subscription. Though there are some lousy responses, the majority are well reasoned and add to the original topic. The best part of the red stars is that its proof the editors are actually reading the letters. I also like the fact the number of letters for most articles are fairly small, unlike say Huffington Post, where writing a comment is the journalistic equivelant of tossing a glass of water into the sea.

There are certain writers who post often enough that their letters are like regular columns. Flame wars are rare here, as opposed to other sites and there is very little raving lunatic spam. As web forums go the letters set up is a serious asset to Salon.

What I am surprised by, though, is how thin skinned and self important professional writers really are. You'd think your English teachers never gave you a bad grade or something.

"The most obvious danger, for a journalist, is that he or she will respond to criticism by avoiding certain subjects or pulling punches."

I hope you meant this in jest, cuz this is just hilarious. As if any of you "main stream" journalists didn't already do this in order to get published. Steven Colbert said it best:

let's review the rules. Here's how it works. The President makes decisions. He's the decider. The press secretary announces those decisions, and you people of the press type those decisions down. Make, announce, type. Just put 'em through a spell check and go home. Get to know your family again. Make love to your wife. Write that novel you got kicking around in your head. You know, the one about the intrepid Washington reporter with the courage to stand up to the administration? You know, fiction!

I wonder how many hours are lost every day because people are spending their work hours posting letters to Salon rather than getting their actual work done.

This letters section has got to be a disaster if we consider all the lost business it engenders.

[I just lost five minutes of my lunch break writing this missive.]