I moderate all of my comments.
Primarily because sometimes the spam filter breaks down and I had to delete 50 pieces of Spam from the moderation queue on Friday. Partly because I don’t really value everyone’s opinions equally. Seriously. It’s nice to pay lip service to the idea that everyone’s dissenting opinions are valid and… whatever, but they aren’t. Why am I spending my time and bandwidth giving people I literally think _nothing of_ a platform for their rantings? Why should I expect that I can go to someone else’s blog and say _literally anything_ and deserve to be heard? More importantly, why does anyone want to be a part of a forum where their opinions are given equal weight and access to those of racists, misogynists, misandrists, homophobes, or just the chronically, painfully stupid? Is it masochism?
My blog is not “The Government,” neither is anyone else’s (to my knowledge), no one is censoring you. Start a blog with your ridiculous dissenting opinions. They’re free, and you can spout off all of the hateful stupid bullshit you want. America!
– Chris
A public service announcement, for those that they now need to unsubscribe or otherwise stop reading because my politics disagree with theirs.
Your link points to http://www.blogger/com
You probably want to change that to blogger.com
I dissent!
Okay, not really.
—Seriously. It’s nice to pay lip service to the
—idea that everyone’s dissenting opinions are
—valid and… whatever, but they aren’t.
No. Not all dissenting opinions are valid. I don’t know where you read that. What is true is no speech should be censored. That doesn’t mean each one of us is right, or special as Carlin would say.
—More importantly, why does anyone want to be a
—part of a forum where their opinions are given
—equal weight and access to those of racists,
—misogynists, misandrists, homophobes, or just
—the chronically, painfully stupid? Is it
—masochism?
Because that’s the way it should be ? Everyone should have equal access and weight ? No ? You don’t think that by sanctioning the principle of censorship, you leave it for others to use it on you ? Ain’t it dangerous to leave your car with the doors opened ?
If you really think this, then you actually agree with your “racists, misogynists, misandrists, homophobes”. They are the ones who would precisely do what’re doing.
That’s only “agreeing with the principle of censorship” if you don’t actually understand what the “principle of censorship” actually means. It’s more like agreeing with the concept of private versus public property. Which I do!
>It’s more like agreeing with the concept of private versus public property. Which I do!
Hmm. This is an interesting question. Like, I think most people would agree it’s okay to stand around your own living room and shout hate speech, or that you have a right to stand out in public and say racist or misogynist things (as long as you do it in a non-threatening way), but that you can’t go into OTHER people’s living rooms and shout hate speech.
So, are blogs private property or public property? I tend to think of ones like this–which I can read simply by typing in the url, as “public” (in the sense that a resaurant or store is public, in which their are owners or managers with a large degree of control over who uses ’em and how, rather than the sense that a library or park is public, in which greater allowances are made in usage), and those like myspace, facebook or livejournal that I need to be granted access to as “private.”
But that’s just my general perception. I’ve never really thought about it; certainly if one thinks of their blog as their house, then they should be able to say, “Hey you kids get off my lawn!” Or build a fence around their lawn. Or…wait, I’ve lost my own metaphor in there somewhere.
I totally support comment moderation on personal blogs (assuming that the blog owner approves comments very quickly). There are definitely many venues where no hand should be weighing in on what speech is allowed, but personal blogs don’t fall into that category for me– the private vs. public property idea is along the lines that I think of it…
I like when blogs have a first post or static link explaining their policies and/or what sort of community participation is agreed upon– a social compact, if you will.
I consider most comics blog like libraries, too. Sometimes when I’m out on a long walk I’ll stop by to take a dump and read the newspaper.
I don’t have moderation currently but do get the e-mails with the text so I can zap junk spam, but also so that if the content is egregiously off-base, I can zap it. It’s happened twice, and both times, the person had written at least twice before, I didn’t agree with their point, so they ramped up the criticism. I love free-flowing conversations – don’t get enough of them, actually – but no, some opinions are just noise.
It’s always a free speech issue when somebody’s comments get deleted by some censorship-addicted hate-filled authoritarian. I think it was Thomas Jefferson who said “Dude, if you, like, have a blog, you, like, have to let EVERYBODY say WHATEVER THEY WANT in the comments, man!”
Seriously, the world is filled with blogs and street corners where people are free to speak their minds all the live long day. Managing comments on your own personal blog to reduce the impact of yammering pinheads is not censorship, and in fact makes the world a better place.
More and more I’ve been wishing websites would adopt the policy used by most newspapers in their letters to the editor section. In other words, I wish we would start expecting folks to sign their actual name to their comments. Free speech is great, but standing behind your comments is even greater.
Moderate this!
But seriously…
boingboing.com just posted their own comment moderation policy, which I think says it very well:
http://tinyurl.com/yqsbja
This site is here because Christopher chose for it to be here. The content on this site is managed by him–including comments. He makes no secret of that, and for better or for worse, he’s free to do whatever he wants with it.
Also, has anyone else noticed that tinyURLS aren’t as tiny as they used to be?