Yeah, I know, this is back to back days of posting. However, what I had experienced this week pissed me off to the point that I wanted to create another blog, strictly for my rants. However, since my rants are few and far between, I decided it would be better to simply add a new topic to the four I currently rotate in this blog: Rants. I even created a special new label for it, called "Anger Management Issues".
Warning: I do not do PG-13 rants, I do R-rated rants. Therefore, please be advised that the language content may become offensive at times.
With the warning out of the way, let me state that first of all, I have nothing against comment moderation in the blogs. I feel that it's the only way sometimes to get rid of spam/nasty/vulgar comments that people post. I myself do not moderate comments on my blog. As a matter of record, the only comment I had removed from my blog, was one that I posted, and that was because I didn't like the way I wrote it, so I removed it, then rewrote it to my satisfaction.
My main beef is when people who have blogs and don't state that comments are moderated, in fact moderate comments. I can understand wanting to run a clean blog, free from nasty and vulgar comments. I can even understand wanting to run a blog where the comments slant one way. But to those people who do what I had just stated, please let the reader know that you moderate comments.
It's not that hard to do. You can enable the "comment moderation" action to act as a warning to people that nasty comments aren't allowed. I don't have a problem with that. If I know right off the bat that my comment has to be approved before it is allowed, you can bet your sweet ass that I'm going to either post a clean and thoughtful comment, or not comment at all. There are quite a few blogs that I follow that have "comment moderation" enabled and I enjoy those just the same as the ones who don't.
What I don't like and what irritates me the most is when people remove comments that they don't agree with in the first place, without telling the reader ahead of time about that issue.
There have been a couple of blogs that I used to follow that I have now deleted from my bookmarks, simply because a few of my comments (I believe) were purged without prior notification. If you have an issue with my comments, please let me know. It ain't that hard to do. I can either modify what I say, apologize for it (which I've been known to do) or simply go away the hell away and never darken your doorstep again.
To summarize, if you want to moderate the comments to your blog that's fine. Just let the good people know ahead of time that you moderate comments to begin with, and believe it or not, they will understand. Hell, even I will understand. What they probably won't understand, is if they see on the comment screen "this comment removed by author or blog moderator" and they know that a warning wasn't given in the first place about it.
Be honest and upfront with your readers, and they will respect you for it. Lie, and they won't.
Saturday, September 6, 2008
9 comments:
Go on, give me your best shot. I can take it. If I couldn't, I wouldn't have created this wonderful little blog that you decided to grace with your presence today.
About that comment moderation thingy: While yes, it does say up above I can take it, I only use it to prevent the occasional miscreant from leaving thoughtless and/or clueless comments.
So remember, all of your comments are greatly appreciated and all answers will be given that personal touch that you come to expect and enjoy.
G. B. Miller
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Well said.
ReplyDeleteThank you. It ain't easy telling people to "fuck off" without actually using that phrase.
ReplyDeleteConsidering that I spend my time in a PG-13 chat room (Topix), I've gotten thorough use out of my thesaurus.
Don't get me wrong, I like the blog world, I really do. I just like to be forewarned, that's all.
Im SO THERE!!! I never deleted anyone else's or my own stuff from my blog and I don't moderate. I do have comments closed on my "serious" blog but that information posted right up front. I do feel like it's censorship to remove comments. Im learning a whole new side of the cyber world from you Georgie B!
ReplyDeleteI saw that about your blog. Is that something unique to Wordpress?
ReplyDeleteIn any event, I'm glad you're learning a little bit more about the Cyber World.
I've moved to blogging, simply because there is almost zero chance that I can get into trouble with what I say. With the chat rooms, I'm at the mercy of both the moderators and other posters about what I say. Here, the only place I have to answer to is myself. Therefore, the only thing I'm careful about is identifying other people.
It has always bothered me when my chat room comments get removed, and that has carried over to here.
We live and learn.
live and learn. i love that. And, i live it.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit to deleting a couple of comments that were left on my blog. One was where someone implied I was a stalking their blog. They were joking, but I was worried other people would read it and think I was a pervert or something.
ReplyDeleteThat was a year ago, and I've not deleted anyones comments since then. I think I've relaxed a bit more since then.
The main reason why I introduced comment moderation in November '08 was because I was being seriously stalked by someone from the chat rooms. I didn't have the short story blog at the time, but he left a few incredibly homophobic rants on this blog and my book blog, which left me no choice but to moderate my comments.
ReplyDeleteI did find a way though to get rid of him bothering me.
At the time I wrote this, I didn't moderate my comments. While I was writing my response here, I remember that I nuked a few more while moderating because I had someone stalking me again in January/February from the chat rooms.
This is interesting, I think it's a shame when you do have moderate everyone comments because it tends to stop the people commenting interacting with one another, but I can see why it's necessary and I have the feeling it won't be too long before I have to do the same thing on my blog too.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it does.
ReplyDeleteI remembered in the late summer that I had a really good silly conversation with a fellow blogger on a post called "Elifights".
We had a fantastic blast doing it.
But now, what are you going to do? I don't really mind the spam comments but, considering the rep I made for myself in the chat rooms over the past 2 1/2 years, it really has left me no choice but to moderate.
I do try to soften the blow on the comment form with the brief explanation as to why, though. And for the most part, I think that people are understanding about it.