That said, I think if someone is spamming Hubski, we can control whether we see it or not. I would actually choose to see his "spam" because I like the Atlantic a lot. Others might just ignore him and never see his content. I think it speaks to the quality of the publication he represents that he was able to be one of the top 30 redditors. Right? One mans spam is another's interest. On Hubski we get to make that call. I like that.
- If he's posting to his own site, but engaging other users who want to talk about it, then I have much less of a problem.
People will react differently if they know the author of an essay is going to respond to comments about the essay. It seems to discourage discussion of the essay itself. I've linked to some of my blog posts on Reddit and discovered that people will either clam-up if the author shows up in the comments section, or they'll insist on telling the author who he needs to read in order to clear up his obvious misunderstanding of how-the-world-really-is. Either way, the essay itself won't get discussed anymore.
I have to wonder what it says about our culture where sharing the creations of others is encouraged, but sharing your own is frowned upon. Is it due to advertising? It's almost as if we have surrendered ourselves to the role of consumers, and that creation is only valuable when there is consensus.