Dear Mr. Barnhardt,
I want to respond to something in your post from today about Buzz Bissinger and, specifically, about TWoP and comments.
I've been a reader of, and commenter on, TWoP and it's sadly defunct sister site, FameTracker, since 1999. In my experience, you're just way off base on TWoP. TWoP and FameTracker, have/had some of the best moderation I've ever encountered.
Not only are commenters never banned for being insufficiently snarky, moderators keep threads pretty
strictly on topic and flamewars are never even given a chance to start. There is some cursing, but cursing at
other posters is never tolerated. Moderation is so strict you can get a warning for starting your response to a post with a condescending "um", or, as once happened to me, "Oh, please".
I don't know what information you have received or experience you have had with TWoP, but, I assure you,
what you wrote bears no relation to the site I've read for close to a decade and to which I posted, non-snarkily, just yesterday.
(I acknowledge that you are correct about Gawker, as far as I know. I know their Defamer site only allows
comments by select commenters, chosen for their snark. Then again, the same could be said about most of the programming on VH1)
Bob Cameron
(Thanks for confirming that TWoP and Gawker are just a couple of rival high schools in the same suburb. Why does moderation need to be "so strict"? Many sites, like Chicago Tribune, have dedicated staff who moderate with a light touch. They don't have the power to ban. TWoP mods have frequently abused this power over the years, banning people for making statements the mod disagreed with, straying ever-so-slightly off course or, as I've just learned, typing "Oh, please." Oh, please, indeed.--AB)
