Thursday, May 13, 2010

Comments*

*I think this is the first time I used 'dickbag,' 'douchebag' and 'dick-ass' in the same post. Reaching new heights every day.

Quick question to those of you who are bloggers: how do you moderate blog comments, if at all?

The reason I ask is because I left a comment on a blog post, disagreeing with the author, and they didn't publish it; but they did publish all the ones giving positive feedback*. Which I thought was pretty stupid. I wasn't saying 'your blog sucks a big dick!**' or anything, just that I disagreed with them. So partially I'm annoyed because I am feeling a bit snubbed - how dare they ignore me! me! - but also because only approving your good feedback is kind of a dickbag thing to do. In my opinion.

*They posted a patronising and wildly naive spiel about depression, and I left a comment saying "I disagree with how you've portrayed this and here is why," and it went to 'your comment is being moderated' and never published. Weirdly, comments on how spot on and insightful the post was appeared on the site in the blink of an eyelid, and, without wanting to get too high-handed on it, I think that's complete bullshit.

**For the record, though, their blog totally does suck a big dick

I know that your blog is your own little world and you can spin it whatever way you want. And deleting pointless nastiness and abuse is completely understandable. But deleting comments just because you don't like people contradicting you in public because oh God, what if they had a point and all of your readers saw their comment and agreed and turned against you and somehow conspired to throw you out of the blogosphere??
This is the Internet, harden up.

So, question: are you guys moderated? And if so, what do you delete?*

If you are a good reviews only person please tell me why, because I am genuinely interested and I promise not to be a douchebag about it. Also you can still comment anonymously here, if you feel more comfortable in the knowledge that I won't be able to find your blog and post dick-ass comments all over it.

But if I don't like your comment then I am going to DELETE IT HA HA HA HA.

*I only ever deleted one comment and that was because it was sleazy and gross and it made me uncomfortable to have it on the blog, and if it makes me uncomfortable God only knows how uncomfortable it would've made my father, who reads this. Hi Dad!

22 comments:

Anonymous said...

I never post: problem evaded.

IT IS ALLY said...

Yeah, but you have ALBUM RELEASES

Veronica said...

My blog is only mildly moderated. First time posters are held for moderation, as well as comments containing links (to help minimize spam.)

Granted nobody has posted any negative feedback or disagreed with me. I'm pretty sure though negative feed back or disagreements would stop me. I like diverse opinions.

cerebral e said...

I'm just happy when someone leaves a comment.

I seem to get a lot of comments that are Chinese spam and I delete those (if they were funny spam in English I would probably leave them). I think my blog name attracts some weird fetishists.

This is probably the "nastiest" comment I've received (and it was from a Christian blogger):

"I love reading blogs and making comments! I saw your name in some comments you made and thought, "Why in the world call yourself "ugly girl"? And now the title of your blog boggles my mind! This is why I like bloghopping- I get to meet all sorts of interesting people! And now I've met someone who writes haikus! Honestly, it'll take some time for me to decide whether to follow you or not."

Alyson said...

I leave comment approval on my posts for several reasons:

1)I'm afraid my mother or father will suddenly find it and leave something so embarrassing or horrific that I'll have to retire from blogging forever.
2)Weeding out spam.
3)Email notification on my BB that says, "Bitch you've got mail. COMMENTS COMMENTS!" Ok, so it doesn't say that exactly, but it makes me all smiley.

The only comments I ever delete are foreign spam. Everything else stays - good, bad, or ugly.

Hmm...a comment YOU found offensive - really? :)

posie blogs Jennie McClelland said...

I approve my comments as a) they pop into my email as i don't actually spend my day sitting waiting for comments on my blog & b) i can delete all the weirdo spam comments, which can be for posts from 2 years ago & c) when you get your comments emailed, you can reply to them (if they set up their comment powers & email properly) to chat or say thanks for the comment!!
I have never deleted a comment other than spam. I have a friendly mummy crafty blog so not sure who would attack that??
I'll be back once a week to come back to this post to check my comment is never deleted, love Posie

Unknown said...

Wow, that is lame. I only delete the ones that are spam. I think I may have deleted one once when it was sleazy and disturbing too.

Wines for babies! Yah!

inflammatory writ said...

I definitely have only deleted comments that were trolls or overly nasty (like one calling me a c*nt for no reason other than I said I didn't like Lady Gaga. True). Or spam, obvs. People disagree with me all the time though. I would never stop health discourse.

inflammatory writ said...

healthy discourse. Not health discourse. Good lord, I can't spell today.

Christine said...

I don't moderate - I don't get enough traffic for that really. I used to not even do the word verification thing but I got the odd advertisement/spam so I added that.

In principle I totally agree with you - it's lame to filter out anything that you disagree with(rather than say... engaging in intelligent discussion). In practice, I guess it depends on the kind of blog it is. Some blogs I read seem pretty wishy-washy-emotional(and yet I still read them...) and I think there's this idea that they create a kind of "safe space" in their comment sections where nothing bad ever happens. I don't always agree with that, but I guess it depends on your intention with having a blog in the first place.

On the other hand, if it came up, I would totally delete anything gross or trollish (unless it was funny!) or annoying. Because I am the Empress of my blog.

Candice said...

People are dumbbbb. I only delete posts that are outright insulting or prejudice. No one needs to see that.

Juli said...

I never delete comments (except spam). I only moderate older posts (and just to avoid spam). I define spam as, you know, like a bunch of malicious code with links to Ambien or Viagra.

I like your dick-ass comments, Ally. xo's

Stephen Stratford said...

I don't moderate comments at all, basically can't be bothered. Plus I've never had anything that deserved to be deleted - no dick-ass comments so far. Maybe chick blogs attract that stuff more.

Michelle said...

I moderate my comments, but mainly so I know when someone has actually left a comment, and also to weed out the crazies.
My 'favourite' one started like this: "by the way - are you really so retarded that you are not able to see...."

wv: takitio: east-asiatic variety of sea slug that secretes a viscous mucous

Vanilla said...

I moderate my own comments on other peoples blogs because the world isnt ready for the insane mess that is my mind.

But sometimes they slip through.

apple cheeked, potato shaped girl said...

We don't monderate either but comments are emailed to the post contributer so they can check if they like.

ours is a very specific topic so we don't get many randoms but I did remone one that was very abusive.

I think i know who it came from and they were trying to get at be but it was just so nasty I couldn't leave it up.

bluzdude said...

I neither moderate, nor use the word verification. So far I've only had to delete the occasional spam.

A comment would have to be over-the-top offensive for me to delete it, or completely pointless.

Should my situation change, I'd consider both steps.

Jackie said...

The only time I have ever modded comments was when it was either disgusting or too personal. Otherwise people are free to agree or disagree, especially on an issue that I may be unclear about.

Andrea Eames said...

I don't allow anonymous comments, to avoid random weirdos, but I don't delete any comments.

Andrea Eames said...

Oh wait, I have deleted one once, but at the commenter's request - they had accidentally posted their home email address.

Tooting Squared said...

I don't moderate at all, but I think I'm going to set up the VW thing because I keep getting strange Chinese spam (translated one to find odd fetish comments about pandas. Strange, no?)

I once deleted a comment because it pissed me off. I wrote a post that was a bit deep and thoughtful and which I laboured over for ages, and the first comment was from some nobber telling me I'd misused an apostrophe. Nobber. But I wouldn't delete something just because it wasn't what I wanted to hear. Rough with the smooth. That's what I think.

Ells (aka Serialmono) said...

After writing at a site with some of the meanest commenters ever (http://datingisweird.blogspot.com) for awhile, and apparently garnering my own personal haaters, who would shit-talk anything I wrote, call me a skank, say I was a terrible writer, tell me to "get a fucking life," etc., I decided when I started my own shit not to put up with assholes. Sure, you can disagree with me, but a general "you're a boring asshole" comment (which I suspect was my anti-fan from the other blog finding its way to my new blog) got the delete.