As you know, this blog evokes spirited discussion on hot-button medical topics. Many have written about the vitriolic nature of selected comments and asked me to “do something about it”. Some thoughts:
1) I believe it goes against the spirit of a blog to moderate or censure comments (except for spam). The anonymous nature the comments gives people the opportunity to “tell it like it is”. At the risk of allowing obvious inflammatory and irrelevant comments, much of the debate gives a unique insight “behind the scenes” of medical practice. Some may be offended and shocked at certain comments. I contend that a majority of the comments reflects a level of frustration at our dysfunctional health system that the public may not be aware of.
2) Comments are not visible on the main page. If you are sensitive or easily offended by the discussion, I suggest you do not make the conscious effort to click and read the comments.
3) Unfortunately, I do not have the time to moderate comments.
Thanks for your continued readership and support.
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- Legal trouble with blog comments
- 5 top medical comments, April 12th 2009
- 6 top medical comments, May 10th, 2009
- 6 top medical comments, May 3rd, 2009
- Blogger comments are broken
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{ 24 comments }
Kevin: your blog is probably the one that gets the most comments in the medical blogosphere. Actually, I enjoy reading the comments almost as much as the blog posts itself. I wrote about the different approaches to readers’ comments used by bloggers here:
How do you deal with comments?
http://casesblog.blogspot.com/2006/02/how-do-you-deal-with-comments.html
I bet that most/all of the complaints are coming from non-physicians. They must be shocked by the hatred that physicians show towards them…but it’s just the truth. Most physicians don’t tell their patients that they hate them to their face, they pretend they care about their bs complaints and can’t wait until they get these complainers out of the door or ER…the first thing I think about when i see a patient is “How will this patient possibly be able to sue me” and then I order tests accordingly…I think this is what generates most of the hostility. Any physician who denies these thoughts is lying…
Anon 11:20..I bet most of the complaints are from Physicians about YOU! I’m sure they see you as the poison to their profession that you are. Most Docs. do have compassion and empathy for their patients. It is you and ones like you, that hate your pateints, that are bringing down the medical profession.
Most Physicians have worked very hard for the respect they get from their patients and the public in general. They don’t want some disgruntled ER Doc. taking all that away.
Kevin,
Three thumbs up, keep it up.
Blogs are for people who care to find out how things really are. Those who are afraid should put back on their rose-colored glasses and get back to reading their local hometown paper.
This is only the start in shining the sunlight onto our healthcare system and much more will come soon.
Let The Good, The Bad and The Ugly be called out.
The comments are one of the reasons I have linked to this blog, and I can’t see why you should be asked to censor them – it may not be a completely free country, but the web is as yet as free as we can wish.
But the debate would of course be simpler if everybody posted under a nick or an alias. It gets very confusing with all the anonymouses. I still haven’t been able to find out which of them that keeps calling me a nazi.
Definitely not me, Samson. My mouse gets crazy scrolling up and down the comments looking for Anon this and that. Sometimes everybody is so engrossed with their own comments or maybe the desire to finish typing, completely missing point of discussion.
My only complaint (that their is no solution for) is the repetitive nature of the blog lately. Anon 1120 PM writes about how horrible it is to be an ER doc, then other writers comment about how they can tell what a bad doctor he is, based on the fact he hates his job. This is frankly getting boring and repetitive.
I can’t just roll with the flow here. I do believe that when a person starts a BLOG they have some responsibility to atleast make some effort to moderate their own site. I have previously posted my views at clinical cases and images on this.
I believe that almost all comments should stand. If folks have differing opinions and can’t take hearing a good back and forth then they probably shouldn’t read BLOGs.
I also feel it becomes a different issue when discussions resort to an abusive nature, with name calling and personal insults becoming the focus of discussion.
Owning a BLOG should be about “quality” of posts and comments not “quantity”. Just because someone is getting 40-60 comments per post does not make that site one of the best BLOGs in the universe. When the quality disintegrates, the faithful readers who have visited that site since its beginning, will soon leave and find ones where quality still means something.
Thats just my personal opinion and I mean no disrespect to anyone.
The fact that this blog is unmoderated is one of the things I like about it too. Sure, sometimes the comments get abusive, even hurtful and repetitive (you can almost recognize some personalities), but once you stop taking them personally they just get entertaining.
There is always a choice to 1) post something in reply – probably not a good idea but often difficult to resist 2) ignore mean and repetitive posts 3) stop reading the thread.
I might dislike some of the posts, but moderated forums are often just boring. Besides, one never really knows about personalities of people who posts. Somebody very mean on the web may actually be a nice person in life; shy person may become very outspoken.
“Owning a BLOG should be about “quality” of posts and comments not “quantity”.”
Quality is in the eyes of the beholder or reader. Your idea of quality is not necessarily the standard but just a fraction of it just as mine is.
Speaking of quantity, your own comment can be compressed to: This blog should be moderated to delete insults and abusive comments and allow everything else.
Hey doc Elliot, why don’t you write another ten paragraph exposition on pseudonyms?
2) Comments are not visible on the main page. If you are sensitive or easily offended by the discussion, I suggest you do not make the conscious effort to click and read the comments.
I’m not sensitive or easily offended by the comments here. I just find most of certain anonymous posters’ comments to be ranting and raving to no purpose. I read your blog everyday. I just skip the comments.
Good suggestion.
mary
Mary, you didn’t skip the comments on this one. I bet you read those comments, otherwise you won’t be able to make such judgment or comment.
Kevin, I haven’t written to complain about any comments. I like the blog the way it is. I expect there to be spirited discussion and venting of frustration by many different sorts of persons affected by the current issues in health care delivery.
I don’t expect anonymous commentors to be all sweet and polite or tactful, or for you to police them on any regular basis. However, there is one commentor in particular that you should do something about.
You know who I’m talking about. The degree of hostility and inappropriateness suggest this man has a real problem and could be a danger to the people he treats. I don’t know what his problem is, but he’s got one that could affect other people. You have an obligation to protect those people. Physicians are not supposed to cover for doctors who are a danger to patients, and I think you should not screen his comments here, necessarily, but intervene by obataining his identity, contacting him and advising him to get some help before he hurts someone, including himself.
Please disable anonymous commenting and force people to pick a name, any name, even a dumbass pseudonym.
I think each person runs his own BLOG in whatever fashion he see’s fit. I would not ever email someone and ask them to change what belongs to them. Frankly, it is none of my business. However, the most angry I have ever been, on any BLOG, was on this one this morning. Our favorite ER Doc. for some reason, called me a whore (concubine), on a post I hadn’t even commented on. Totally uncalled for. But I can handle myself! I just addressed him and comments in general on my own BLOG.
Dr. Pho, I do enjoy your BLOG. I’m outspoken and many times argumentative but I do not resort to name calling!
To quote Harry Truman,”If you cant’s stand the heat, get out of the blog.”
This blog is marvellous. Where else can a physician come an b.ow off some honest steam. We doctors are incessatnly bombarded with the message that we should put ourselves in the patients’ shoes – and it’s damn good advice. So good, in fact that what’s sauce for the goose should be sauce for the gander. I would think that if medicine is reallya two way street, it’s high time patients should hear about the frustrations we physicians have to deal with in this forum. They’re certainly not going to hear it at a clinic visit.
Keep up the good work!
Anonymous, until I can come up with a clever name.
1. Jan–you are dumb
2. Kevin–you are smart
3. There is not just one “bad ER doc”. You are hearing commentary from many different physicians who are disgruntled. If you are interested, go to a few police blogs and read the comment section. Most professions have large problems that are difficult to solve. One of the large problems of this profession is unrealistic expectations by patients. You only perpetuate that when you dream of how doctors all love their patients and should respect people who are openly rude to them and pay them less than their plumber. The reality is what people write when they are anonymous. The fantasy is what they say to your face while billing your insurance company.
There are many disgruntled doctors, including ER doctors who post here, and what they say isn’t always nice.
However, there is only one that causes concern.
There *is *only the one bad apple, and he is out of line and in need of some intervention.
“Jan…You are dumb!”
“Kevin…You are smart!”
Sounds very close to:
“See spot, watch spot run”
Pre-school terminology!
Kevin, I think you should censor the comments of the one guy who always comments negatively about his doctors; after one doc gave him a new knee he just posted bitching about the doc…you should intervene before he does something…wait, he really can’t do anythign to anyone because he doesn’t have a job and doesn’t contribute to society like we do and all he does is sit at home typing into his computer…fugettaboutid!
Kevin, like the Hospitals, I would advise you that for your own protection you should hire a large team of Risk Managers to help monitor this site, and if it’s too expensive, put the site out of business.
kevin should do his fellow md’s a favor and identify the patients posting here and nofify their docs that they better protect themselves and buff up the chart or a lawsuit is heading their way soon…
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