Calling For Balance On 'On Balance'
A few days ago, my three kids were bickering endlessly with each other for the trillionth time. I told them "I've done everything in my power to stop your fighting and I've decided you three simply deserve each other. So keep on bickering to your heart's content!"
They laughed and stopped fighting.
It's time to do the same thing now with all of you. This summer, the anonymous nastiness on this blog has become counterproductive to what has been, in general, a very productive discussion for the past 18 months. Not everyone is at fault here, but everyone will now be required to register with washingtonpost.com before they are able to post comments to the blog.
We value honest opinions; disagreements and even anger are a normal part of conversations about work/life balance and parenthood where philosophical divides are common. Requiring registration does not mean we don't want to hear from you, but it does mean we want you to take responsibility for what you post, and maybe even think twice before turning to malice.
Here is how it's going to work:
When you click to post a comment, you will be prompted to log in. Your MyPost ID will display when you post a comment. You can set this ID to be different from your e-mail address one time here. If you have already created a MyPost ID elsewhere on washingtonpost.com, that ID will display on this blog as well. If you click to post a comment and are not yet registered with washingtonpost.com, you will be asked to do so.
I hope that those of you who want to continue "making real, substantive contributions to the contributions," as one reader wrote in an e-mail, will stay. In her words: "I don't want to lose the fun and the margarita discussions, but I'd like it to feel less like a junior high cafeteria."
A second part is for our community to self police. If you see an offensive comment that you think warrants removal, please send an e-mail to onbalance@washingtonpost.com. That will help flag these comments earlier to those of us who can remove them.
By Leslie Morgan Steiner |
July 31, 2007; 6:30 AM ET
| Category:
Conflicts
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