Comment moderation: “on”

Comments around here have been a mixed bag. They have allowed folks to share info on, e.g., where recycling bins are located, or how the new Fuelperks program works, and they have allowed folks interested in, say, gardening to find each other to discuss their common interest offline. But they have also provided […]

August 16, 2008; 10:34 AM • by brenda p

Comments around here have been a mixed bag. They have allowed folks to share info on, e.g., where recycling bins are located, or how the new Fuelperks program works, and they have allowed folks interested in, say, gardening to find each other to discuss their common interest offline. But they have also provided a space for people to vent, or worse, to hide behind anonymity to launch snarky remarks.

Thus far, we have pulled comments only in rare instances (involving ad hominem remarks). Instead, moderation has mostly been limited to jumping into the occasional testy conversation in an effort to redirect to more neutral ground, or emailing someone who is having a fiesty day and asking them to dial it back a notch lest they lose commenting privileges for a while. But that limited approach to moderation still lets a lot of yuck through. To the extent that I have come to not enjoy the comments feature of the site.

Since I do not want to be involved with something that I do not enjoy, I’ve been chewing on what to do. First thought: nix the site. But that would be a bit extreme. And really, the calendar and photos and school news and such are great. So the question becomes: how to keep the baby while getting rid of the bath water.

In the context of the above question, I was curious what effect, if any, the registered commenting feature might have. It turns out this feature is too clunky to be worth looking at (a bummer, as it did significantly reduce spam… for the 3100 or so comments on this site, we have nuked over 31,700 spam comments. !!!.).

That being the case, for the time being we have turned comment moderation ‘on’. That means that all comments must be approved by a site admin before going live. I’ll be honest… at this point we don’t have a clear set of guidelines to give you in terms of what will go up vs. not. Let’s say as a rough approximation that comments that offer something constructive will be welcome, as for the rest… maybe.

All this is subject to change of course. Maybe this notice should be called, “Experimenting, part II.”

August 16, 2008 10:34 AM 0