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Wherein I ramble about books, movies,
music, TV shows, my life, and occasionally, hot emo boys.
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Monday, March 26, 2007
Comment Moderation
When I visit a blog and comment, it's because I want to interact with the owner(s) and other commenters. Sometimes people turn on comment moderation and then it's like commenting blind. You don't know what else people have said on this topic, maybe you're going to post the exact same thing as the guy ahead of you.
It makes reasoned discourse impossible; I can't react to what someone else has said until the blog owner "approves" the comment. That strikes me as utterly micro-managerial. I mean, shit, you can delete any comment anytime. So what if somebody calls me a cum-guzzling whore or a no-talent hack? One of those things is true, so I'd let that comment stand. The other one, I can remove. What's the big freaking deal? I don't believe in censorship, and if I get spammed, I'll delete that comment too. Again, not a big deal.
The thing that really honks me off about comment moderation is: some folks turn it on and then don't moderate. I'll leave a comment on their blog and then surf back there a week later to find out their thoughts on what I said...and my comment isn't posted!! Bollocks to that. There is no faster, surer way to keep me from returning than to do that shit. Strikes me as onanistic, for one. If you don't want others intruding on your self-love, turn off comments altogether, for fuck's sake. Make it crystal clear you aren't interested in other people's opinions.
It makes reasoned discourse impossible; I can't react to what someone else has said until the blog owner "approves" the comment. That strikes me as utterly micro-managerial. I mean, shit, you can delete any comment anytime. So what if somebody calls me a cum-guzzling whore or a no-talent hack? One of those things is true, so I'd let that comment stand. The other one, I can remove. What's the big freaking deal? I don't believe in censorship, and if I get spammed, I'll delete that comment too. Again, not a big deal.
The thing that really honks me off about comment moderation is: some folks turn it on and then don't moderate. I'll leave a comment on their blog and then surf back there a week later to find out their thoughts on what I said...and my comment isn't posted!! Bollocks to that. There is no faster, surer way to keep me from returning than to do that shit. Strikes me as onanistic, for one. If you don't want others intruding on your self-love, turn off comments altogether, for fuck's sake. Make it crystal clear you aren't interested in other people's opinions.
Labels: SBD
However, I must point out that Blogger has TURNED ON comment moderation for people I know without their knowledge or consent. It was only after they were told they'd been left comments that hadn't appeared that they knew moderation was even turned on. They immediately turned it off, but in the interim, the comments sat there in limbo because they didn't even know the comments existed!
"Ignorance of the law is no excuse for breaking it."
Or something like that.
If nobody commented on my blog in one DAY I'd look at comment permissions. It's their dang blog. If they don't make sure people can be heard, who will?
What if they have a stalker or someone determined to make trouble on their blog? Shouldn't they have the right to keep the squabble from other people's eyes?
As for stalkers and troublemakers, well, if I had a crazy person on my blog, I'd just tell my readers, "Well, that commenter is a nutjob, feel free to enjoy the show."
But yeah, anonymous, people can choose to moderate their blogs or not approve comments just like I can choose not to mess around those pussy blogs. Ironically, if I moderated mine, I wouldn't approve anonymous comments, but that's another rant: standing beside what you've said.
I 'spose I can see enabling comment moderation if you know you're going to be away for a day or two and you don't want to come back to a spew of abusive shit. But quite honestly, when I see 'comment moderation enabled' it kinda makes me think some prissy bitch is sitting back going, "Hmm, I'll decide if your comment is worthy of posting and responding to or not."
Umm, anonymous, if you have "a stalker" you've got bigger troubles than nasty ass comments on a blog.
Plus, (not sure about blogger) but on myWebland bloggie, I have the option of permanently blocking undesirable commenters. Only had to do it once, had a two day run of some bored, sorry dick head posting links to movies...not the Disney kind. :-)
Of course, I don't get nearly as many comments as you so it doesn't seem to cause repeats very often.
I also had to set it so that I no longer get notified by e-mail if there's a new comment that I have to approve, which sometimes delays the appearance of new first time comments even more. Why? Because when I was getting thousands of comment spam, I'd get thousands of notification e-mails in my inbox too, and my ISP has a max on my inbox -- if I reach that max before I even open it to see what's in it, everything gets wiped out. Yeah, everything, meaning a lot of missed e-mails, both frivolous and important. Lost to the ether, never to been seen again.
Upside of my comment moderation? Once I approve a comment by a first time commenter on my blog, I never have to moderate any of their comments again.
So comment moderation is so very worth it to me. :)
"Well, that commenter is a nutjob, feel free to enjoy the show."
"As a matter of fact, it's PMS territory for me, thanks for caring."
Dang girl - I adore you.
Once I felt safe, I turned it off, because I hate it too. A lot. Then I went really crazy and turned off word verif, and I have to say, I haven't attracted any more spam without it than I did with. Actually, now that I think about it it's been less. And I love not having to deal with word verif.
I don't mind when really big blog like Miss S moderate, because I remember how things got there before she started doing it. When thousands of people read you every day, potentially leaving spam and abuse everywhere, it's a pain to have to delete those comments. Better not to have them there at all.
But I do still hate it.
Note: I have never had comment moderation turned on, on purpose or by accident.
April and Michele, neither of you are guilty of the top thing that annoys me with moderation, ie not moderating. Grrr. My words are gold, dammit, they should be seen. *eyeroll*
Haha, Jac. I don't think I'm popular. There are people who get 100 comments a day regularly. I'm just anal. I'd be like, is something wrong with blogger? Why hasn't one single person posted??
DQ, people handle such things in different ways. I'd probably just delete the comments, but it was your decision.
As a first time blogger, I wasn't sure if spam and asshats were going to be a problem. I also have had trouble with a nasty viper clique from a board I used to post on. Since I wasn't sure (and still don't know) if I could delete comments once they were posted, comment moderation seemed like the safest course for me.
Having said all that, though, and even though I'm a controlling old bitch, I really wouldn't hesitate to publish comments that disagreed with me.