Andy Rogers, in a Facebook comment today on “Commando no more“:
Waaaay too much information in the blog!
I have revised this posting to begin with the following warning:
[TMI Warning: The following posting contains information, opinion, or reflection that some readers might find uncomfortably or unwelcomely personal, private, or intimate in topic or content: too much information, as the saying goes. As a general observation, I’m willing to go almost anywhere in my postings, including some places that some readers don’t want to go.]
I will now go back and add this warning to other postings. I invite your suggestions, preferably by e-mail to zwicky@stanford.edu, as to which postings should be so labeled.
In the Usenet newsgroup soc.motss, I used to preface my racier postings with a warning that they treated sexual activity in plain language, so that some readers might want to avoid them. The tenor of blogs has changed enough in the 30 years that have gone past that I now rarely issue this sort of warning, but I wonder if I should return to some version of the practice. (I put “adult” visual content on AZBlogX some time ago, along with creative writing — poetry, fiction, fictionalized autobiography — with “adult” verbal content, but much verbal content remains on my regular blog, as does some “borderline” visual material.) I welcome opinions on the matter, as comments on this posting.
December 15, 2012 at 5:55 am |
I think you should continue to flag your racier material for people who don’t want to see it, just to keep readers you might otherwise lose. I frequently enjoy your X-rated material, even though I’m straight as a stoat (now there’s a fine mixed metaphor for you).
December 15, 2012 at 5:56 am |
I wouldn’t bother, really. If people are offended by such trivial subjects as whether one is wearing underwear or not, then that’s their lookout. And if I ever come across material on the Internet that I don’t care for, I immediately go on to the next bagatelle and don’t worry about it. If your readers don’t want to take your journey with you, they can go on to something else too.
In addition, if you put a “warning” label on your posts, you’ll inevitably find that someone will be offended at some post you didn’t think would need a warning. Then you’ll end up putting a warning on every post. What a drag that would be!
December 15, 2012 at 6:22 am |
Once you accept responsibility for someone else being offended, you take on a battle you can never win. Don’t go there. I enjoy your posts because you have no limits. Keep being you!
December 15, 2012 at 6:32 am |
Note to readers: this Andy is *not* Andy Rogers (as you could have guessed from internal evidence).
I don’t see issuing warnings as accepting responsibility for someone else’s being offended, since I continue to exercise judgment about what reasonable people might be offended at and also judgment about when it’s justifiable to press ahead, risking offense, and when it’s considerate to let people avert possible offense if they wish.
December 15, 2012 at 9:10 am |
Not TMI! I say more I!
By which I mean, I don’t follow your blog for the linguistics of it. “Mostly about language” is perhaps the most generous way to put it.
No no, on the contrary I am a longtime reader because where else could you find quality homoerotic/penguin/mammoth/content, sometimes in collage form, all created by the author of your Morphology 1 textbook?
I confess to being slightly more interested in the male underwear posts than the recent commode posts, but interested in the hip recovery nonetheless. Hope you’re feeling better!
December 15, 2012 at 9:38 am |
You *do* know that I’m sneaking bits of linguistics in all the time, don’t you?
More male underwear coming soon.