Aug
17
Timothy Ferriss Comment Question
Last week I wrote a post titled, “Timothy Ferriss: ruining lives four hours at a time” where I was critical of Timothy’s book. I have never received more legit comments on a single post that I wasn’t willing to moderate. OMG, evidently there are lots of fans of Timothy’s idea that a four hour work week is a good idea. They get VERY pissed if you say anything negative about the book, so pissed that they cannot help but use vulgarity to express their views. My question: Should I redact the vulgarity and post the comments or simply delete them? I have been deleted them so far, but started to wonder if I was making a mistake. Thoughts?
While it is your website and your blog post, you opened the can of worms by not disabling comments. Having said that, how do you expect to bring about valid, viable discussion on any topic if delete the comments?
I see these comments as a way to further substantiate your claims while allowing the individuals their own opinions. As to redacting the vulgarity found in some posts, I myself would only “mask” (e.g. replace “dumbass” with “!@#$%^&” or some such allowing the space for the expletive to remain while blanking out the specific expletive) the obscene words while leaving the remainder of the reply in tact.
This is the 21st century after all and everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion on a given subject no matter how wrong it may appear to be to you.
Comment by Jeff — August 30, 2007 @ 10:16 am
I loved Tim Ferriss’ book, but why would I cuss you out for not liking it? That seems odd. Everyone has an opinion about things. If we all had the same opinion, we’d get a lot more things done (in particular, politically) but it sure would be a boring world.
Incidentally, the tools your company is capable of programming to make the web more efficient is exactly the kind of thing that people can use to create their “four hour work week.” So, you are enablers, I guess. Haha!
Cheers!
Dan
Comment by Dan Sherman — September 9, 2007 @ 2:55 am
Why doesn’t Ferriss prove his claims? Maybe it’s because he can’t. When I search the net, there’s no proof of him being an advisor to olympic athletes or being an MMA champion. Smells fishy?? Very Aleksey Vayner-ish.
Can someone call or email his publisher to verify his claims? If his claims turn out to be fake, people who bought his book should demand a refund, like hat happened with James Frey.
Fraud, scams and cheating people never pay. Ferriss needs to show proof or lose all credibility.
Jean
Comment by snake-oil charmer — September 12, 2007 @ 11:25 am
In my opinion, it’s alright to keep a few of the posts that contain lots of swear words. Just take the suggestion “Jeff” offered and replace the swear words with symbols.
This way you demonstrate what kind of people the book is attracting.
Personally, I can’t possibly imagine including swear words in a post, comment and/or any other document. It simply makes the author resemble a child who doesn’t yet have the vocabulary to communicate with adults, and therefore will resort to screaming and crying.
Regards,
Comment by bizzymind — October 26, 2007 @ 11:26 am