Moderating Comments

If you are among the daily visitors you may have noticed that during the past few months I have turned on the comment moderation feature several times. The reason has been because the good old Shack is taking a shellacking from spammers who choose to pollute the blog with all sorts of commercial notices.

I have a fairly liberal commenting policy in which I let a lot go. Unlike some other bloggers I don't always nuke comments that oppose my point-of-view. In a number of cases I have retained comments that were patently offensive.

The reason is simple, one of the reasons that I blog is for the dialogue. I like the interaction. I like to have my views challenged. I don't like being wrong and I don't like looking like a fool, but sometimes that is the price for pay for engaging others.

Anyway, during the past few months there have been a number of times in which people have placed comments that are nothing more than an ad for a business. I appreciate their belief that my blog serves as a good platform for promoting these companies, but I don't appreciate being used.

Or should I say that I don't appreciate being used for advertising for commercial services unless I am paid for it or have decided that I want to promote a product/service.

So, if you post these blatant ads without consulting me first there is a good chance that I am going to remove them. I'd rather not implement the comment moderation again, but if that is what it takes so be it.

3 comments:

Leora said...

Try Wordpress? Akismet does a nice job on spam.

I can't see you switching, but just to let others know, there are ways of dealing with comment spam besides full moderation.

One Wink at a Time said...

I loves me some Akismet. No, this is not a advertisement.
That is annoying. I noticed one day that my old blog on Blogger has been infiltrated and it would take years to go in and delete them. The nerve.

Jack Steiner said...

Leora,

Actually I have a Wordpress blog. I like it.

Wink,

Akismet does an excellent job.

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