I really enjoyed this post over at the Read, Write, Web blog site. As one who has been blogging and moderating blogs for well over ten years now, I can surely identify with the wish to have proper “flags” by which to mark comments. Here then is a “wish list” for little symbols moderators would love to have at the ready to mark incoming comments. Kudos to RobCottingham for this.

More of the latest stats on who is where and using what on the Interwebbernet.dot.whatevers.worldwide

This blog site is not “open season” when it comes to comments. All comments are moderated and subject to editing or not being posted at all. Therefore, just by way of reminder, if you feel a need to indulge in passive-aggressive rudeness, you can find plenty of places to do that. This is not one of those places. Thank you, and now back to our regular programming.

Source: Gary’s Social Media Counter

A couple of tweeks to my blog site, one which you won’t see, one which you will. I added a plug called “Better Comments Manager” that will make it easier for me to review and reply to your comments and added “Subscribe to Comments” which will allow you to subscribe to and follow any comment thread you want to keep an eye on. I also tweaked the sidebar with a new graphic element. There you go.

The past week has seen a 34% increase in visitors to Cyberbrethren, probably because of the extensive coverage of the ELCA’s Churchwide Assembly decisions and posting of various reactions and statements. If you have a moment, feel free to add a comment and let us know who you, and where you are from. Thanks for reading.

When people blog anonymously, it comes back to haunt them, when they are found out. And they always are, eventually. It is embarassing for them. So, if you are going to blog, do so under your real name. To blog anonymously demonstrates a lack of integrity. A word to the wise is sufficient….

So, Amazon has opened their blog distribution network to, well, anyone with a blog. Cyberbrethren is now available via monthly subscription to all Kindle owners and readers. It will be interesting to see what happens. I’m having a hard time figuring out why anyone would actually use a Kindle as their blog reader, and pay to view blogs, when they are available for free over the Webernet. Here is a screen shot of Cyberbrethren’s Amazon Kindle location:

Just a note that I’m no longer using the IntenseDebate plugin on this blog site. I had way too many problems with it. I notice that Dr. Gene Edward Veith has also dumped it from his blog site.

Since moving my blog into WordPress and on to its own domain, I’ve not been moderating comments. It has gone pretty well, in fact, thanks to IntenseDebate, it has been going so well, I’m going to require all persons wishing to comment to joint IntenseDebate. Those wishing to add a comment to the site will be required to register with IntenseDebate. So, comments remain open and welcome, but registration with IntenseDebate is now required. If you do not like this policy, you may start a blog site to debate this decision, intensely.

I recommend you add my colleague, Rev. Edward Engelbrecht’s, blog site to your blogroll. He has started blogging again and has interesting things to say about the task of writing, and writers, along with other thoughts along the way. He is inviting others to add to his blog. Other colleagues here at Concordia Publishing House who are blogging, including Rev. Scot Kinnaman, who likes to write about liturgy, worship, catechesis and related subjects, and Rev. Robert Baker, whose blog site is focussed on bioethical issues facing us today. Scot and Robert have been in my blogroll for some time, and I’m happy to add Ed’s blog again. Stay tuned for more CPH folks who are blogging, I’ll mention them when they become available.

Some months ago I declared Twitter to be a total, complete waste of bandwidth. I was wrong. Twitter can be a bane, or a blessing, depending on how you use it. The trick to it, as I’ve discovered, is managing and using it efficiently. Here are my two favorite tools: TweetDeck and Pingfm.com. You will find this beginner’s guide to Twitter helpful. This is from Michael Hyatt, the CEO of Thomas Nelson, a leader in the general Christian community when it comes to Tweeting, Twittering, etc.

With TweetDeck I’m able to sort, slice and dice all my incoming Tweets, and organize whom I following into logical groupings. If you do not do this you will go insane trying to read Tweets, and since some people like to tell you what they are doing every fifteen minutes, if you pick up even a few dozen twitter feeds, yes, you will go nuts. Ping.fm is a wonderful way to update as many social network sites as you want, all at once. So, enjoy.

Pastors: we have to be where the folks are. And, they are on Twitter, and Facebook, and the Internet, and blogging, and so forth, and so on. A mantra I picked up from a co-worker recently is true: Communication is key and the Internet is free. Need I say more?

Oh, yes, you can Tweet this blog post, or send it on to Ping.fm. Just click the links below.

Readers might recall the previous open letter I posted. This is a follow up to that letter. A friend of mine and I were discussing a phenomenon we are noticing on
several Lutheran pastors' blog sites: relying on passive-aggressive game playing,
rather than clear assertion and propositional argumentation and debate.
Here is what my friend said, and I thought it was interesting. Perhaps you
will too.

"Passive-aggression is not a psychological disorder, it's a game people play. And some Lutheran bloggers play it well. It's not pop psychology, but the identification of a game wherein a person appears benign and victimized but actually is the aggressor. The "I'm offended" crowd is particularly good at this gambit. It's also not really an ad hominem, since you are not making a point by attacking a person personally, you're simply calling out his game.

This is really the whole mode of some Lutheran bloggers. They write ambiguously and then complains that no one understands them. I've fallen prey to that one on several occasions. Some Lutheran bloggers take weird positions on things, and then complains that people think they are weirdos.

I think the bottom line with the whole passive-aggressive Lutheran blogging crowd is that they like the attention, and they'll do most anything to get it, including redefining Lutheranism. They're not content with being another irrelevant cog in the wheel. They want recognition. In a way, when a person responds to them they provide the very thing they are looking for: recognition, attention, validation and credibility. The more attention you give them, even negatively, the more they do what they do."

My respectful suggestion to Lutheran bloggers, particular Lutheran blogging pastors, is to drop the gamesmanship and start making clear and well reasoned assertions. Leave the amateur psycho-analysis, ad hominems and emotionalism at the door when you blog.

The Lutheran blogging pastors in my blog-roll [over to the right] are amongst those who do not indulge in these games and that is why their blogs are ones I find consistently to be helpful and edifying.

With no thanks to my co-authors (hint-hint), the Book of Concord Blog has been updated, with a new discussion on Repentance, based on the third article, of the third part of the Smalcald Articles.