In a time-wasting and space-wasting article in The Washington Post (and I mean that in the best sense), Monica Hesse writes about how some people are using the blogosphere to hone their senses of humor.
“Humor is the pre-identified currency online,” says David Karp, founder of the microblogging site Tumblr.com, or, as Wired’s Scott Brown calls it in his essay on comedy and the Internet, the “Lingua Franca” of the wired world. Failed attempts at it are met with vicious mockery and so entire pockets of the Internet turn into humor boot camps. Make us laugh, or leave.
This order is explicit on Gawker Media… Commenters on all Gawker sites must “audition” before they’re allowed to post anything, and approval can be revoked at the whim of the editors for being “excessively self-promotional, obnoxious, or even worse, boring,” according to the site’s FAQs. “There will be no warning, and no appeal.”
Hmmm… Nah. Although I sometimes do wish for more genuinely funny comments here. Is there a Harry’s Place commenter you would like to single out for her or his skill with wit? Someone who actually makes you smile or laugh?