Blogging from the Server Side

In my previous post, I wrote:

If a positive statement isn't feasible, keep the focus of criticism on ideas, rather than the people behind them. When you personalize the politics, there is greater risk for vilification, and you run the risk of alienating a sizable portion of the audience.

Although not necessarily a political battle, some recent blogospheric buzz provides us a teachable moment.

Over at CNET News.com, iconoclastic columnist Charles Cooper is blogging about a bloggers' brouhaha that has erupted between high profile executives at two major blogging platforms. The ever snarky tech gossip website Valleywag has a colorful account of the story as well.

It all started when one of them decided to use an upcoming upgrade release of the competition's platform as a reason to encourage the users of that platform to migrate to his company's platform.

The other exec, apparently none too happy about the post, responded with a Twitter post that personalized the matter with an ad hominem attack, and things went downhill from there. Referring to the two execs as "twits", Cooper wraps up his post with some sage advice.