It’s been a while since I discussed my “policy” for handling comments on posts here, and it was never a strong policy in any case. A situation arose recently where I had to enforce that policy, however, so:
I “start from yes.” While W.a.R. uses Spam Karma 2 to trap spam (and require me to go find and “unspam” legitimate comments with lots of links) and doesn’t display trackbacks, I don’t moderate all comments (at least not yet), and I don’t require “registration” for comments.
However:
- Legally actionable comments are not allowed. If you want to accuse a company or person, by name, of infringing copyright, this is not the place to do it. If you want to accuse someone of something illegal, this is not the place to do it. I’m pretty conservative about this one: If I think there’s any plausible legal issue, I’ll delete the comment.
- Crude language and hate language are not allowed. This is not a public forum; it’s still my blog.
- Personal attacks, particularly on anyone other than me, are generally not allowed.
- I feel much freer to delete anonymous and pseudonymous comments than I do with named comments.
- Comments that appear to be wildly offtopic or have even the whiff of spam or promotion will be deleted.
I think I’ve had to delete less than one comment a year (excluding stuff caught as spam). Want to disagree with me, even vehemently? The comment will stand (barring the issues above).
I know: clarifying when comments will be deleted isn’t a great way to start the new year. Sometimes it’s necessary.
Oops: I thought I published this as soon as I wrote it, but apparently not–it was written yesterday morning. The situation has been resolved, but the policy is still worth clarifying.
Quite clear and very fair. Well done, Walt.