Thursday, September 14, 2006

A Note on Comments

You might have noted that I enabled the comment moderation for a couple of days during a discussion of this post. While I enjoy lively discussion and have no problem with disagreements with myself or others, the thread disinigrated into such a juvenile level of name calling, and just plain silly behavior that I chose to moderate the comments.

Remember, I do not have time to always read through and moderate these comments as they come in--and I really do not want to, as I feel that people should say what they want on my blog, within reason. But, unfortunately, people also associate my views with the commenters--making it my business what people here say. But some of the commenters--particularly those coming from live journal sites (you know you've hit bottom when you see these in your referral stats) are just attacks, plain and simple. If you wish to change people's minds, at least use an ounce of common sense and decency, unless your purpose is just to harrass others, in which case, you are wasting your time here.

I will add that most of my regular readers are gems, have great insight and even when they do not like what I say, are polite and knowleadgeable, often getting me to stop and think. However, the trolls make it more difficult for everyone. I hope that I can keep the comment section open and unmoderated and that good sense (and good discussion) will prevail.

15 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Look on the bright side -- blogs that aren't interesting and well-read don't have problems with comments.

Serious question: What's wrong with livejournal? Is it mostly kids or something?

9:38 PM, September 14, 2006  
Blogger SFN said...

It's really a shame how easy it is to attract a few nuts that end up taking 90% of your time.

10:59 PM, September 14, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

What's doubly weird is that these same folks seem have been posting the same remarks to other blogs that were discussing this topic. The discussions there were very similar.

You might ask around to see how other bloggers handle comment moderation, it can be a sticky issue as you inevitably end up making judgement calls on what/when/who to censor.

Also you might consider removing the Anonymous option, if possible. If people are compelled to at least use a pseudonyms it seems to cut down on the more incindiary comments.

11:19 PM, September 14, 2006  
Blogger Helen said...

O.B. and others:

Well, I hope the posters on live journal are children because the comments that came in from them were ridiculous so I assume they were. However, it seems that many adults these days are regressed to the point of angry three year olds who have no abstract reasoning ability, so it is possible they were 40 year olds. I sure hope not.

I may remove the Anonymous option so that people can use pseudonym--but I would rather not. Usually, the trolls leave pretty quickly as their attention span is short.

6:58 AM, September 15, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

people also associate my views with the commenters

Those people are idiots, and you shouldn't base your actions on their lack of reading comprehension.

The anonymous option is an annoyance when more than one participant in a thread makes use of it. Pseudonyms offer all the anonymity of the anonymous option, but at least make it easier to figure out "who's on first."

2:01 PM, September 15, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

o.b.: Livejournal was Myspace before Myspace, if it helps.

10:24 PM, September 15, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Trolls have ruined large swathes of the USENET hierarchy, and I fear that they'll do the same to popular blog forums. My vote, if we're taking a vote, it do de-anonymize. Also go ahead and prune flamers from the comments. You'll get lots of complaints, but the end result will actually be a more robust debate.

11:06 PM, September 15, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

One of our daily newspapers has enabled comments to stories, columns and articles. While that's a handy outlet for people who like to respond to what they read in the paper, there is no moderation and only a modicum of filtering of language. Several of the regulars routinely attack each other, the writer of the item, Democrats, Republicans, the President, the city council (usually by party affiliation), or--did I mention each other? Sparsely represented are the rational comments of the few. More people need to learn that rage is no substitute for reasoned intelligence.

10:14 PM, September 16, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Here's a helpful suggestion, Dr.

If you want to keep the conversation civil, do not degrade former presidents by calling them "sociopaths" and "psyhcotic" and don't call pictures of said President with bloggers "Groper Support Groups."

Throwing around that kind of garbage will get you garbage thrown right back at you. And rightfully so.

11:28 PM, September 16, 2006  
Blogger TMink said...

Ya know the sad thing? I really like it when people disagree with me and I have to think about their point. It keeps me sharp, shows me where I am wrong, helps me shore up weak arguments when I am right, it is an all around good thing.

So I went looking for a good liberal blog to participate in. All I could find was the kind of juvenile name calling and posturing that has inundated this blog after it were put on some sort of hit list.

And the sexual preoccupation is just demeaning. I know that the gutter tripe that has been posted is not representative of all the left, but oh my goodness it is ugly and disheartening. Please, someone, give me a THOUGHTFUL and LOGICAL liberal blog to check out. I need an antidote.

Trey

10:14 AM, September 19, 2006  
Blogger TMink said...

after it WAS, not were, sheesh.

Trey

10:16 AM, September 19, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Trolls have ruined large swathes of the USENET hierarchy,

They've ruined it only for the weak minded. Usenet offers the ability to sort posts as a thread based tree, which makes it very easy to ignore trolls and the posts of those stupid enough to respond to them.

12:43 PM, September 19, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Now get rid of all your worries about getting answers to questions you have about kids fun site. We've done your work for you and it's all here, ready for the reading.

9:47 PM, November 10, 2006  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

視訊做愛視訊美女無碼A片情色影劇kyo成人動漫tt1069同志交友網ut同志交友網微風成人論壇6k聊天室日本 avdvd 介紹免費觀賞UT視訊美女交友..........................

10:59 PM, May 19, 2009  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

性愛姿勢 sogo 色論壇美眉共和國美女視訊色美眉部落格男同志聊天室免費成人情色愛情公寓aaa片免費看影片sex movie日本美女寫真集情色a片情色交友色情遊戲aio交友愛情館sex999免費影片伊莉成人視訊交友歐美潮吹短片線上a片85cc免費影城s383情色大網咖sex888 sexy girl

11:42 PM, June 07, 2009  

Post a Comment

<< Home