Dominque, Dave, and Dana: The Delaware Blogosphere evolves (or is it "devolves"?)

Dominique got her baptism of fire at Down With Absolutes as an outspoken Hillary supporter and Obama critic. Passionate in her beliefs, she seemed taken aback by the sheer ferocity of the give-and-take in the responses to her posts.

But she has hung in there, demonstrated that her passion is accompanied by intellectual honesty (as when she declared it was over for Hillary) and a willingness to admit what she didn't know (in her new posts asking about Gordon and Coons).

In short, Dominique got the usual crash-course in what happens when you aspire to move full-force into the blogosphere.

And she has survived the initiation.

On the other hand, within the past month two fixtures of the sphere--Dave Burris and Dana Garrett (once friends despite all ideological differences)--have hit storms that threatened both of their positions in the virtual community.

Dave, of course, enmeshed himself in subpoena-gate with Mike Matthews at DWA, and though his The Rest of the Story contained some explanation, it left open questions about Dave's judgement, tact, and ethics.

Ironically, I met Dave face-to-face for the first time last week, at an event in Bridgeville. It was a handshake and a visual recognition, not a conversation, but it affected the way I saw him. The context of the event (he was squiring Bill Lee around in a friendly crowd) highlighted that strange mix of passion, eloquence, insecurity, and bull-in-a-china-shop brashness that combine into a unique individual. The only real problem Dave has is that he cannot acknowledge the time he's gone over the line.

Everybody goes over the line at one point or another, and you have be able to muster the grace--at least every so often--to acknowledge that you've done so. I didn't say apologize, because, as Pandora says it very well:

If we all had to apologize everytime our tone was unacceptable our posts would be over-flowing with ‘I’m sorry’ comments.

That’s the nature of blogs. We bloggers shoot our mouths off daily.

But no matter how awkwardly phrased, occasionally, Dave, you have to be able to admit that you're not the junior G-man and then move on. Hard as it is to believe, everybody else will, too.

Well, almost everybody else will.

Dana Garrett announced this week that from now on Delaware Watch will be operating under the auspices of comment moderation. This strikes a serious chord in the Delaware blogosphere, because we all take seriously the ability to let fly with whatever is on our minds (or out of them) at any given moment. Let even one comment get stuck in somebody's spam queue, and questions of censorship always arise, even when we really know better.

Some blogs I read utilize comment moderation (Waldo, for example), but within the rough-and-tumble of our little Delaware virtual community you have to be able to give a shot and take one. Nobody wins all the time; there are too many sharp, passionate people here, and we love to take down cocky almost as much as we love to be right.

Dana's fierce, vituperative, and takes no prisoners. He makes outrageous charges, parses meanings out of his opponents words that they never intended, and calls names at the drop of a hat. But he can (or at least could, up to now) take the hits as well as dole them out. When he went over the line, as someone once said at Delawareliberal, "that Uncle Dana, we all know he's just like that."

Somewhere along the line within the last few months, inexplicably, Dana seems to have lost some perspective. His response to Dave Burris labeling him a socialist or Tyler Nixon going after him on differences of opinion about Ron Paul have lost all sense of proportionality. And Delaware Watch has suffered for it. There are still strong arguments and well-researched posts, but there is now an almost palpable sense of self-righteous anger and inability to see anyone else's perspective--ever--that has reduced the blog from one I check daily to a place I visit maybe once or twice a week.

And even then, sometimes, I don't bother to read beyond the titles of the posts.

What I'm saying here is that comment moderation is symptom rather than cause.

In case it matters, Dana, I miss the old Delaware Watch, that used to be funny as well as acidic from time to time.

The thing is, the blogosphere changes, and it does so with what can sometimes be disorienting speed.

It's actually a pretty fragile community, one that hasn't quite found either its place or its true voice in society at large. We're all part of a self-inflicted social experiment here, and social experiments generate casualties as well as successes. I am pleased that Dominique has established herself (and no, Pandora and Cassandra, I haven't forgotten you, but this post seems to have a thing with bloggers whose names start with "D"). I am hopeful that Dave will figure out that nobody demands contrition, just insight. I am deeply regretful that I see Dana withdrawing from the community, and I hope he changes his mind about that.

Good night, moon.