Our policy boils down to:
Come one, come all. Be kind, be respectful, stay on topic.
If you think someone is breaking the policy, please don’t call them out for it in the thread. Instead, you can email me, or put a comment on our commenting policy page.
Thank you for your cooperation and contributions.
And you can always fall back on musical theater!
David, ever heard that wonderful song from “Avenue Q”?
That’s horrible.
On the bright side, that English degree your parents told you would be worthless suddenly has a new sparkle.
The whole field is extremely sketchy. As in
http://blogcommentwriters.com/why-us
Exactly word for word. So it’s the same entity trolling for propagandists for hire across the political spectrum, such as it is. It would be interesting to get hold of both sets of “talking points,” no?
Guys, Paradox’ link comes up for me as a dead link, but by going to writing and editing jobs at the top of the dead linked page, I find this:
http://calgary.en.craigslist.ca/wri/2293273577.html
Which includes David’s quote word for word, and more, but listed as seeking LEFT wingers.
“We are a social media company working for a political organization, hired to help balance the right-wing bias of the major media outlets by supplying a team of writers who will post to newspaper comments, media forums, Facebook pages, etc.
Your writing must be strong, left-wing and use the supplied talking points without being bogged down in too much detail. You are creating an online persona with a consistent tone. Ideally you can find or construct facts and statistics to stir controversey. Where suited humour is welcome.
You are a news junky who is able to log on to news forums and Facebook pages several times a day. You are able to write comments tailored to new topics while repating key talking points.
Compensation: TBD, hourly rate and volume of online activity. Bonuses for controversial postings that heat up a topic or forums thread.
How to apply: We are more interesting in your writing than your resume. To apply submit a 100 word post based on the headline “Harper Promises Everything”. Show us that you can write from a left wing character voice, score points, stir outrage and use humour.
Be sure to include your name, email and cell number so we can contact you.”
So, it goes both ways?
Seems to.
This is freaking hilarious.
“Your writing must be strong, right-wing and use the supplied talking points without being bogged down in too much detail. You are creating an online persona with a consistent tone. Ideally you can find or construct facts and statistics to stir controversey.”
Discussion is all well and good, and the appropriate goal of this blog.
That being said, when up against paid posters fro the other side,
http://calgary.en.craigslist.ca/wri/2291978638.html
We may need to be a bit more tight with our commenting policies.
(Note, this discussion is what blogger transparency looks like.)
I agree. And when one occurs, we should definitely comment about what it was that was a violation and why we are moderating it.
But what about when something is NOT a violation? I’d prefer to have the discussion be about the topic at hand rather than why a particular comment does not violate our very generous policy.
I’m not sure I agree with this across the board. It seems to me that a violation of our commenting policy – which IMO you would have to try pretty hard to achieve – could be a valuable teachable moment. And by extension, a potential or perceived violation could be also. I personally have great confidence in our ability to explain what and why is and isn’t conducive to a good discussion.