Comment Moderation Decision
Published by deviousdiva February 25th, 2008 in Blogging.I have been thinking long and hard about what I should do about comments on this blog and I have reached a decision that I am happy with for now. The policy I have come up with is in four parts:
ONE:
People commenting for the first time will need approval from me before their comment will appear. This will hopefully prevent people who repeatedly violate my comment rules from changing their names and coming back for another hit. (yes, I know who you are).
TWO:
People who have approved comments will automatically be able to post whenever they wish. Friends and allies of this blog are always welcome. People wanting to discuss the issues in a civil and respectful way are always welcome. New visitors are always welcome and will have posting privileges once they have a comment approved.
THREE:
People who attack and insult people personally on this blog will have their names dropped into my moderation list. This is so that if you have something to say (yes, even if you disagree with me!) and you say it without rudeness and name-calling, I can approve it once I’ve seen it.
FOUR
People who continue to ignore my repeated requests for respect and civility on this blog will go on the banned list. No discussion. No cries of censorship. You will just be banned.
If your comment does not appear as soon as you hit send, it does not mean that you are banned. It might mean that I haven’t had a chance to read through the comments and approve them. I do get a fair amount of spam and sometimes comments slip into the spam list instead of moderation. This new system has not been tried and tested yet, so please bear with me while I iron out problems this end. I am sticking this post to the top of the blog until I’ve had a chance to see what happens. If this idea works out, I will update my comment policy.
I still reserve the right to delete any comment that I consider necessary to remove even if you have had other comments approved.
Thank you for your patience and thank you to everyone who emailed me and sent their words of support. Very, very much appreciated.
DD
UPDATE: ALL COMMENTS ALLUDING TO OLD PERSONAL ATTACKS ON THIS BLOG WILL ALSO BE DELETED..
I will also only have comments open on the latest 5 posts. This is mainly because of spam but also to prevent people from finding other threads to be play nasty on. If you have a comment for an older post, you can email me using the contact form at the top of the page.
The feedback so far has been 100% positive from people who behave in a reasonable manner on this blog. And 100% negative from those who don’t. I think that says it all.
Technorati: blog comments, moderation, comment policy, banning, approval
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I think this is an excellent policy. It will give people who are interested in these issues the opportunity to stay up to date without the distraction of pointless name calling etc. go DD !
This is the policy I’ve been using since August when I decided moderation had to be turned on.
Thank you db0 for your anti-spam suggestions. I tried the anti-spam word system a while ago but people kept losing their posts if they forgot to type in the word so I removed it ! As most of my spam appears on old threads, I think it makes sense that I have closed all but the most recent posts for comments. I have the plugin called extended comment functions where you can switch on and off everything (or set your own parameters) with a single click. You can find it here
Also, Bad Behavior completely broke my blog a while ago and I am very dubious about using it again even though they have updated it. Blog superstitious !
Thanks for your suggestions though. I really appreciate it when people take the time to help me out.
Hi again danilena, good to see you here again! I am convinced that it is possible to have an interesting and enlightening discussion/debate without the name-calling! I have faith in the majority of people being able to conduct themselves in a civil way. There hasn’t been much evidence of it lately but I keep the faith anyway. I keep trying to explain that I have no problem with people disagreeing with me or asking questions or posting opposing views. I have hosted some very interesting threads that have played out like that.
Anyway, I feel better about taking more control over the recent activities here and I am realising more and more why the most productive debates and discussions require a tough moderator. I don’t particularly enjoy that role but I see that that is what it takes.
Hi Kat, yes, I’ve been following your tribulations on your blog too! People pestering you about information that you have already provided etc. It’s infuriating but I guess that’s the nature of this medium ! I think there has to be a regular tweaking and reviewing of comment policies as a blog evolves and especially as it gets bigger.
Some people will be feeling they are being censored because I have deleted comments that refer to an old personal argument (even if they were being polite). I have updated the post above to make it clear that I will do this for everyone. I have deleted several comments already from BOTH sides because they are just going over old ground and we would be in danger of ending up exactly where we started!
My question as a computer engineer would be: don’t we need at least another twenty years of research in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Natural Language Processing to provide that kind of automation?
Hi j95, I didn’t phrase that very well did I
What I meant was that that person’s name will be copy/pasted and dropped into my moderation list by little old me ! Thanks for pointing that out !
DD, I also had this problem and it turned out that it wasn’t really the plugin but rather the spam list service they were using. The author has since removed them.
In any case, bcSpamBlock is still one of the best imho (although I probably don’t have the same quantity of comments as you).
cheers!
Hi DD
I think this is an excellent decision. I have had comment moderation on for some time now but I have never explained why. I am so tired of getting abusive comments directed either at me or other commenters. And yes people feel they are being censored but the point you make regarding this makes a lot of sense. I find that anonymous people and people who do not leave email addresses are usually the culprits which says a lot about them. People think they can say anything no matter how offensive it is under the guise of making a comment anonymously. I have never made an anonymous comment and whatever I say people can always come back to my blog and respond.
I did actually write a short post about moderation but never published it and I wonder if you would mind if I took a lead from your ideas on this to post on my blog. I feel I should ask first.
BTW I am doing a workshop today for NI and will be using your Roma series as an example of activism and research
Thanks
Sokari
Hi Sokari, You can use whatever you wish from my blog. I trust you as a great ally and friend. And I am honoured that you will be using my Roma series in your workshop! The only thing I ask is feedback on what the reaction is (if any) because we so often work in a vacuum.
Thank you for your ongoing support and dedication. I really appreciate your work and your friendship.
I am hoping to do more on the Roma here in Greece in the very near future.
(I will email you about some developments that are personally gratifying, if and when they happen)
Respect
DD
Thanks DD -