#38 Leaving really long comments on blogs and articles critical of homeschooling
There are a million examples of this. Someone writes a blog post or article knocking homeschooling, usually based on misinformation, or even the author's guess of what homeschooling is like, and the link starts getting passed around on e-lists. Then angry homeschoolers decide to either enlighten the author, or tell them off with comment posts that are longer and better researched than the original post. Why is this bad? It makes us look kind of crazy, and like people who can't handle criticism or take a joke.
So, before you waste an afternoon replying to someone's thoughtless criticism of homeschooling, please consider whether:
- You would say in person the things you are writing online,
- Your comment is concise enough that it will be read,
- The blog actually gets enough traffic to matter in the grand scheme of things,
- The audience of the blog is likely to be responsive to your views,
- You don't have something else to do with your time that would be more productive or satisfying
If you feel a post needs a complete response, consider writing your response on your own blog, and linking to it in the comments.
