Comment Moderation
on March 3, 2008
Category: Blogosphere
After nearly 4 years of blogging and a host of abusive comments mostly from anonymous people, I finally chosen to enable comment moderation. Devious Diva has come up with a code of conduct for commenting which I am adopting with some slight variation as follows:
ONE: Friends and allies of this blog are always welcome. Anyone wanting to discuss the issues in a civil and respectful way are always welcome.
TWO: People who attack and insult people personally on this blog will have their names dropped into my moderation list. This is so that if you have something to say (yes, even if you disagree with me!) and you say it without rudeness and name-calling, I can approve it once I’ve seen it. People who leave comments anonymously without email address will not have their comments posted because I have noted it is this group of people who leave abusive comments.
THREE: People who continue to ignore my repeated requests for respect and civility on this blog will go on the banned list. No discussion. No cries of censorship. You will just be banned.
FOUR: If your comment does not appear as soon as you hit send, it does not mean that you are banned. It might mean that I haven’t had a chance to read through the comments and approve them. I do get a fair amount of spam and sometimes comments slip into the spam list instead of moderation. I apologise to the few people whose comments have got lost in this way.
FIVE: I still reserve the right to delete any comment that I consider necessary to remove even if you have had other comments approved.
I am trying to install an auto system to deal with the above so if anyone has ideas please let me know.
Thanks to everyone who has supported Black Looks over the years including those who do not always agree with what I or other guest bloggers have to say.
Tags:
Blogging
Comment Moderation
Comment Policy
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13 Comments so far
1. Keguro
March 3rd, 2008 at 11:18 am
Hi Sokari,
I’m sorry you’ve had to do this, but I well understand the necessity.
Aluta Continua! Offline and Online.
Keguro
2. Sokari
March 3rd, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Thanks Keguro - I am happy that you passed by
3. dara
March 3rd, 2008 at 1:17 pm
I think your news rules are quite reasonable. Now people can no longer hide behind anonymity.
4. Exquisitely Black
March 3rd, 2008 at 4:24 pm
A decision that many of us Bloggers will eventually have to consider. It’s not only time consuming to moderate, but sad that people can’t act respectfully and responsibly.
I do agree that your rules are reasonable, and hope this helps generate the kind of positive and intelligent debate we all seek.
5. Brian
March 4th, 2008 at 3:15 am
I have similar rules for my blogs. I also don’t permit completely anonymous commenting. You can use a name. You can use a nickname. But you have to be able to stand by your comments.
6. Rethabile
March 4th, 2008 at 6:48 am
Good move. And necessary, too.
7. Becky
March 4th, 2008 at 9:16 am
Its funny how people claim censorship and hide behind it to insult others. I recall there was one time I asked people not to comment if they had something negative to say about Kenya. An anonymous left a trail of insults but I knew that must have been a friend who we had disagreed over chat and i could tell from the language and line of argument
so, some of the annon could actually be your buddies who have no courage to say it and I think its fair to ask people to say it, no matter what. Thats if its not offensive.
B
8. Sokari
March 4th, 2008 at 9:22 am
Becky @hmm I would like to think my friends have the courage to disagree with me and certainly not stoop to sending insults. Thats disturbing that a friend would do that to you - I hope you were able to let them know you knew it was them!
9. Sokwanele
March 4th, 2008 at 2:40 pm
We have to moderate on our blog too to avoid some really vicious hate mail from those who admire ‘degrees in violence’.
But I do think, sometimes, that its worth letting some of them through. They sometimes do help to prove the point of what we’re campaigning against, if you know what I mean…
10. Sokari
March 4th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
Sokwanele @ I can imagine the sort of comments you receive and hmm I take your point about letting some of the hate through!
11. Janet W
March 5th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
I’m a reader of your blog. I think it’s necessary to limit the ability of abusive, anonymous people having a place to vent their screed. So I applaud your decision. I would like to see, however, a nickname field, which people could use instead of their name. I think this would encourage participation from people who don’t want to leave their name and comments traceable on the Web.
If you go to craigslist.org, they have a nickname feature when you register–which you must do to comment on certain portions of the site. Maybe that will give you some ideas.
Thanks for your blog.
12. Sokari
March 6th, 2008 at 11:04 am
Thanks Janet, I will check this out and see if it is something I can incorporate here.
13. Lara
March 7th, 2008 at 3:55 am
Good for you for banning abusive and violently hateful comments from your blog. I go on a lot of radical feminist blogs and in order to keep it a safe space for women to discuss many sensitive issues it is NECESSARY to ban hateful and violent comments by men who troll the websites. It is very upsetting for me to read some of these men’s comments, and we already, as women of color, or men of color, or even white women, deal with so much hateful messages and images directed against us that we at least deserve some safe spaces online to discuss issues.
Blog on.