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.

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 :)

Big Brother is an all pervasive institution that sees and hears everything. Concepts such as ‘Newspeak’ and ‘doublethink’ are quite relevant these days.

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.

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.

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?

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.