They Should. But They Do Not.
Ryan Overbey: bloggers “need to take a lesson from academics- who have a clear sense of propriety, who make effort (for the most part) to argue with substance and arguments rather than ad hominem and sarcasm.”
After, on a different subject entirely, when responding to Jay's argument that people should do something (in this context, it doesn't matter what Jay thinks people should do), Matt May says : “Yes. They should. But they do not.” Bloggers should write more academically, and should resist ad hominem attacks. But, because the expectation of blogging is that you must respond quickly or risk being seen to be behind the times, they do not. Academics have processes like peer review to help stamp out ad hominem attacks and lack of substence, but bloggers very often do not. There is no one to "edit" your thoughts before they get published (unedited voice of an individual, right?), and yes, that is a weakness of blogging as well as a strength. A double-edged sword, if you wanted me to use a cliché to make the point.
So if Ryan expects bloggers to act more like academics in their arguments, then there needs to be academic-like processes in blogging. So far, since the vast majority of bloggers are not academics that's not happening, and since a great many bloggers probably don't like it when academics tell them how to engage discourse, I fully expect it not to happen anytime soon.
