Ta-Nahesi Coates, a senior editor at The Atlantic Monthly, ran a personal blog for years. Coates posts daily on a wide array of subjects: movies, politics, economic inequalities, the Civil War, TV shows, favorite poems, or whether pro football is too dangerous to play. Coates, who is African American, is also well known as an eloquent writer on race, and he posts about that frequently. Yet his blog is amazingly abuse-free: comments spill into the hundreds without going off the rails. “This is the most hotbutton issue in America, and folks have managed to keep a fairly level head,” he says.
The secret is the work Coates puts into his discussion board. Before he was a blogger himself, he’d noticed the terrible comments at his favorite political blogs. Coates realized that negative comments create a loop: they poison the atmosphere, chasing off productive posters. So when he started his own personal blog, he decided to break that loop. The instant he saw something abusive, he’d delete it, banning repeat offenders. Meanwhile, he went out of his way to encourage the smart folks, responding to them personally and publicly, so they’d be encouraged to stay and talk. And Coates was unfailingly polite and courteous himself, to help set community standards. Soon several dozen regular commenters emerged, and they got to know each other, talking as much to each other as to Coates. Their cohesion helped cement the culture of ____________ even more; anyone today who looks at the blog can quickly tell this community isn’t going to tolerate nastiness.