For all the complaints about the lower half of the Internet, there is one message that the authors really scary

I have a rule I try to see while browsing information sites online: trying to keep my sanity intact. I rarely succeed, it must be said. The temptation to look too hard. I know I'll be angry, irritated and troubled sometimes by some ugly things written by stupid and uninformed, ignorant souls, intolerant overinflated sense of their own value and importance. I know that sometimes I am taken by the provocative trolling, attention seeking idiocy or corrupt promotion of vested interests, but next time will be different. But one day, I get to pursue my own golden rule: never read

upper half

internet

Yes, you read that right. I know that the popular belief among journalists and hawkers opinion, it is the opposite: never read the bottom half of the Internet. If I say politely that SOD. I'm old enough to remember the Internet before the World Wide Web, when it was used as nature intended: sharing irrefutable proof of the alien threat. Internet porn thing I saw was the first ASCII. In the early days of newsgroups and lists the lower half of the age of the Internet, and the heart is still alive, throbbing beast.

yet the treasures of the optimism of those years - a future without limits of knowledge, the democratization of debate, political censorship. A quarter century later, the miracle of the digital revolution has created the means to connect the world, which allows us to meet and talk directly to people around the world, from a home in the suburbs of Melbourne a guy from the streets of Sao Paulo and a professor of Sacramento. We can hear their views, learn from their experiences and then call a penis. Technology is a wonderful thing.

But do not despair, dear commentators, because the return has begun. In the recent history of social media conference, Rob Manuel, co-founder of B3ta.com, presented an impassioned defense of reviews online. His speech inspired by Hannah Waldram, a staff member of the community Guardian mount a brilliant volley of praise to comment on your blog, and establish a new film called The lower half of the Internet, dedicated to better and more information, constructive and useful contributions submitted to the Guardian and elsewhere. In the early days, the site has already shown the frequency to add comments expertise, perspective and vision of the original articles.

I learned a lot from reading the internet, and I think I learned as much comments and blogs of amateur and professional writers. To give just one example, were the commentators here on Comment is free, protesting against the injustices of the evaluation of the working capacity established by the government and carried out by Atos longer before journalists major political columnists although The Guardian picked up on the story. As a journalist, I always pick up nuggets of information on topics of interest below the line. Of course, many appear to be somewhat (or completely) false or misunderstood, but a significant minority are extremely useful. I really find it incomprehensible that other writers who are separated from the gold mine of knowledge.