Funyuns and Mountain Dew

Johnathan Dee of the New York Times has a very interesting glimpse inside the rise and fall of Little Green Footballs. Forgive me for sounding immodest, but it reminds me of my previous foray into the blogosphere. Don't get me wrong - at PG's height it was still only a tenth of the size of LGF's readership today, and so the problems were likely only a tenth of the size of Charles Johnson's. But the constant bickering among commenters, threats of violence, violations of privacy, accusations of censorship, and political posturing were enough to drive me away for three whole years now.

As for LGF, I've been a loyal reader for years now, and while I have generally agreed with Charles' world view, I have rarely agreed with the way he chooses to administer his blog. On my blog I very rarely found it necessary to censor comments or ban trolls outright. And on a blog such as LGF, which by design fosters such rousing debate and often seems to beg for dissent (even from loyal Lizards), using such broad action and inflammatory rhetoric comes off as intellectually bankrupt.

Of course Dee's article also speaks volumes about the ego of Johnson. Let's face it - even the blog in the center of everybody's attention is just a blog. Johnson accomplished some amazing things in his time. Rathergate was probably the blogoshpere's finest moment. But ultimately you're just a guy in front of a keyboard like the rest of us, not a king maker. This is a lesson that Kos and Andrew Sullivan could learn from (as soon as the seething rage and "heartache" caused by the very whisper of Charles Johnson's name passes).

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