Metablog: Comment Moderation
There is always the issue of comment moderation, as opposed to the “total” freedom of the so-dubbed self-expression on blogs, to reflect on. Questions such as: “Why would anyone enact comment moderation?”, and “What ends does this facility meet?”, are naturally valid. But no less valid is the question: “Can you trust people enough not to moderate their comments?”.
Blogger has a comment moderation system, that is not precisely timely. Nevertheless, it is a useful tool in the hands of blog authors who do not wish offensive language - for example- be posted in the tails of their entries, thus depriving them from achieving their desired degree of seriousness or from impacting their targeted readership as they intend.
Offensive language aside, some times comments just “don’t fit”. This is yet another reason in favor of moderating comments: Why publish a remark debating, say, apples, when one’s entry is about cars? No reasons I can think of can satisfy this question’s answer.
A wise function in Blogger’s comment moderation system is the inability of the blog author to modify or alter comments in any way; comments either get published, or they don’t. A possible outlet, or an exception, for this case is when anonymous comments exist. In this case one can modify and re-post the comment as an anonymous person, certainly with a difference in the clock at the end of the remark in question. Still, this trick is not entirely safe, since anonymous commentators are not all blind to the time they posted their comments.
“Can you trust people enough not to moderate their comments?”
The answer to this question relies laregly on one’s own perspective of matters, and one’s experiences. From personal experience, I have to announce that I do not trust people enough not to examine their comments before having them related to my entries. This is not to say that any are inferior to some, but to simply state that there are no guarantees as to what irrelevance or medicore quality one can have glued to a certain post, should one be too tolerant in this regard.
It’s quality that one should be concerned about. If one is positive that the readership is perfectly aware of the importance of a topic, or even remotely aware of it, and that this same readership is operating on a relevant wavelength that will not overshadow the content of a post, then there is hardly a need for any such a step as “monitoring”, or “control”. But the odds of having a person all too sure of the anonymous eyes reading a blog is so marginal it is almost non-existent.
Enabling comment moderation remains a personal choice of the author. Some work well with it and are able to take in numbers upon numbers of absurd, and mostly off-topic comments, while others cling to the principle of quality and do not wish to have to be put in a situation where they manifest their control by deleting improper comments. It is a waste of time and energy, essentially.
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February 12th, 2006 at 8:33 pm
Nacent steps towards censorship, well done. Your steps will only grow with time. Welcome back, Big Brother!
February 12th, 2006 at 9:09 pm
I can’t but agree on comment moderation. I can’t have people use my blog to spread agressive thoughts or to attack people, if you are looking for freedom of speech, then use your own blog, not mine.
February 12th, 2006 at 9:48 pm
I moderate my comments. Not to stop freedom of speech. There is all sorts of stuff posted on my blog that I dont agree with. But some people like to attack people, threaten them, ect. These types of words are not covered under freedom of speech, hence I cut them.
Interesting, but the people who do this know who they are and that their comments are out of line because when I posted that I was going to begin to moderate comments the attacks and threats stopped.
February 12th, 2006 at 11:30 pm
Abu-Sinan,
Didn’t censorship all start with benevolent intentions? All justified with preserving the social contract and the peace? Do you really think Man can moderate himself, let alone others?
February 13th, 2006 at 7:44 am
I guess this is one of the caveats of using Blogger. ;)
I personally use WordPress, which allows filtering of specific words or phrases and flags such comments for moderation. WordPress also allows the editing of comments by the moderator. The moderation options are much more versatile, but then again, not everyone wants to go through the process of setting up a WordPress system.
February 13th, 2006 at 9:37 am
And do’t forget blog spam..you also need to moderate for that.Or else your comments would be all care swap and loan ads!
February 13th, 2006 at 3:35 pm
I don’t moderate my comments because I enjoy reading them and I enjoy deleting them as well.
February 13th, 2006 at 7:14 pm
I feel I must post a reply to Anonymous 1 and Anonymous 2 ( And if they happen to be the very same person then all the better)
Anonymous 1;
This is what you said, I post it to facilitate a reply: “Nacent steps towards censorship, well done. Your steps will only grow with time. Welcome back, Big Brother! ”
And this is what I say: Thank you for the “well done” bit, I did not expect to receive any such a supportive reply, even if sardonic, as it may well be.
I am taken to believe Big Brother is a TV show. I never watched it though, therefore I cannot be the judge of whether or no you meant me by it or whether or no you were trying to establish a tie somewhere along making your point.
As for using the word “censorship”, that could be justified if one looks at matters in a certain perspective that I choose not to regard. This is, first and foremost, a blog that belongs to me, you may wish to refer to the small bar just above the entries, and to save you the trouble, it says ” My Box…”.
I set my rules, should you want to call them so, in the much-cited Commenting Policy up in the hanging sidebar under “The Box”. Those codes I take care to see followed, and I am fully content with them. If comment moderation will aid me in seeing them realized, then I will use it. If blocking certain people from commenting will help that, should this option be available in Blogger, then trust that I will make use of this advantage.
I would like you to understand that this is not a random place where irrelevance is posted just because the author is craving comments. No sir/maam, this is not. You would be mistaken if you believed it is as such. If you are looking for a place fitting of that criteria, then you took the wrong route here.
Simple logic dictates that there is no way one can satisfy all tastes, and meet all needs of all possible persons handling one’s work. I accept that fact, and I hope you would accept it too. You are more than welcome to post comments that do not hold hate speech, racism, offensive language, details about me that I wish to remain untold, and the rest of things mentioned in my commenting policy. Should this meet your fancy, then so be it, should it not, I am afraid I cannot help you in that regard. Have a nice stay at the Box!
Anonymous 2;
This is what you said: “Didn’t censorship all start with benevolent intentions? All justified with preserving the social contract and the peace? Do you really think Man can moderate himself, let alone others?”
This is what I say: Perhaps some types of censorship started with “benevolent intentions”, to use your own diction, but so did other trends that call for no censorship whatsoever. The outcome, in my humble opinion, is similar. And if it is so, then a reputable person/party might as well not publish irrelvance and/or low quality content. This makes sense to me,yet I cannot tell if it makes sense to you, and convincing you is not my occupation, and I apologize for the candid reply.
Man cannot moderate himself, but one would think Man is a bit closer to self-moderation, if that is what Man wants to do, than he is to moderating others.
February 14th, 2006 at 12:34 am
Hi Tololy….Big Brother is a TV show…however it is a reference to the book 1984 by George Orwell.
Big Brother is an all pervasive institution that sees and hears everything. Concepts such as ‘Newspeak’ and ‘doublethink’ are quite relevant these days.
February 14th, 2006 at 8:09 am
Hello Muppetlord!
Much obliged for the useful infromation, someone also, so graciously, approached me via e-mail to affirm my knowledge that Big Brother is “something else” than the TV show. It’s my way of mocking negativity. Thank you very much :)
February 14th, 2006 at 12:32 pm
Your blog, your rules. It always amazes me when that upsets people. I’m often shocked by the comments I’ve read on my blog, on other blogs, etc., the liberties people take in their writing, maybe because it isn’t a face-to-face confrontation, or because they feel that the anonymity allows them to be more bold (or maybe they are actually like this in real life, which would be sad). I’ve been personally insulted by commenters, seen commenters blatantly ignore the wishes of the blogger, heard stories of other bloggers being threatened, insulted, etc. It can get pretty scary out there. Blogger wouldn’t have created the moderation option if there hadn’t been a genuine need for it, I’m sure.
That being said, I think most people in the blogosphere - either as bloggers or just curious commenters - are decent people with a wide variety of opinions and interests, and write and comment with respect, even if they are disagreeing. It can be a fascinating place to “hang out”, especially when it lets you exchange ideas with so many different, fascinating people.