I just wanted to draw attention to Joseph Kugelmass’ recent announcement that he has decided to close down The Kugelmass Episodes, following a series of incidents that have caused him to question the viability of blogging under his own name. Joe has been a regular and valued commenter here, and his site has been one of my regular haunts – I find it disheartening that Joe’s experiment with blogging under his own name has led to unpleasant experiences that have caused him to question the project. I wanted to draw folks’ attention to his farewell post, and particularly to the reasons behind it, as Joe raises some important questions about pseudonymity and intellectual blogging.
A Final Episode?
Also of Interest
- Academic Blogging Redux
- Blogging Cheers and Fears
- Blogging Terminable and Interminable
- The Cutting Room Floor
- Blogging for the Bottom Line
I can empathize with Joseph Kugelmass’ position after reading his account. There is a lot to risk with commenting and blogging under your own name. So anonymity is perhaps the way to go. Perhaps anonymity is more important for women than men, as men do still have some degree of protection via patriarchy. Someone can make another person’s life hell, by removing a comment from a blog and taking it out of context of the overall blog and act of blogging and do this without any risk to themselves via remaining anonymous or just stalking the blog. This act is one without courage or honour. And things like this certainly it means that people are less likely to post anything remotely controversial or interesting or even critical if someone (stalker or pseudonym) is going to try to nail them for it later without the surrounding context of the blog.
Thanks for bumping this post – I’ve been meaning, actually, to post an update that The Kugelmass Episodes are back on the air – with an amazing flurry of posts that I’ve been longing to respond to, if only I can get some marking out of the way…
E, thank you. I was abashed to return. The kindnesses of NP here, and LarvalSubjects, and the Citizen of Somewhere Else, were instrumental in my decision to return. One thing a community can do is encourage its members, and watch out for them, and I think the community here is solid enough to stand the occasional troll.