Blog Operations Policy

Down yonder a situation arose which I thought I might ought to comment on in the main blog area as it pertains to how I do things generally on the blog.

Basically, I linked a story that I wrote on St. Patrick some years ago, and a reader challenged some of the things it said. He didn’t provide any scholarly sources for me to look stuff up in, he simply said that some of the things were wrong.

Then a couple of days go by and he writes back and says:

Gezz, Jimmy; I was hoping you’d have proved me wrong by now. If not, then I think your article should be revised accordingly.

Just a thought.

I think this would be a good occasion to explain how I handle such challenges, as from time to time they get made in the comments box.

I operate on the rule that not everybody has to agree with me. In fact, that’s Rule 1. It’s why I don’t delete every comment disagreeing with me or feel the need to argue against it vociferously. I don’t have to have the last word on everything.

A converse of this rule is that I don’t have to agree with you, either, and so we can just politely disagree. I may, therefore, choose to let stand both what I wrote and the comment disagreeing with it and people can make up their own minds about it.

I also often sit back and let others weigh in on a subject rather than jumping all over it myself. I may have an answer handy, but I may let others kick the issue around and have their say. The blog is a community, and it’s a friendlier place that way.

I may eventually respond, but only when I have time. That is a commodity in short supply for me. When I have 276 e-mails in my Gmail inbox awaiting answers, that’s almost 300 new issues I have to deal with. Going back and doing research to deal with a challenge to an old issue  may not be at the top of the priority list–especially when it involves an article I wrote years ago and when the challenge is not sourced in a way that makes it easy for me to look up the basis of the challenge.

Also, given the amount of activity on the blog, I may simply forget that the challenge is there, especially if it doesn’t get e-mailed to me per my prior request.

The upshot is that I can’t promise to respond to every challenge. So here’s the compromise that I can offer: Except in Rule 20 situations, you get to have your say, other people get to see it and make up their own minds, and if I’m able, I’ll try to respond at some point if my schedule permits.

Hope that’s satisfactory.

Author: Jimmy Akin

Jimmy was born in Texas, grew up nominally Protestant, but at age 20 experienced a profound conversion to Christ. Planning on becoming a Protestant seminary professor, he started an intensive study of the Bible. But the more he immersed himself in Scripture the more he found to support the Catholic faith, and in 1992 he entered the Catholic Church. His conversion story, "A Triumph and a Tragedy," is published in Surprised by Truth. Besides being an author, Jimmy is the Senior Apologist at Catholic Answers, a contributing editor to Catholic Answers Magazine, and a weekly guest on "Catholic Answers Live." View all posts by Jimmy Akin