Blog Comments
By Brian on Dec 16, 2007
Different bloggers have different philosophies about comments.
Some don’t allow comments at all, which I’ve always thought ruins the conversational potential of blogs.
Some allow comments but require approval of all comments, then only allow through the positive comments. It turns the whole enterprise into not much more than a mutual admiration society (commenter 1: “that’s a great post, author. I agree with your words 100%.” author: “thanks for your insightful comment. we need more people like you in the world.”).
My site security is configured so that any comment from a user who hasn’t been previously approved gets put into moderation and has to be approved, but any comment from a previously approved commenter is automatically approved. My philosophy has always been to allow any comment that meets these requirements:
- The author leaves their real name and real email address. I never approve anonymous comments.
- The comment is on topic. No spam and no comments that don’t pertain to the issue at hand.
- No profanity.
Meet those simple requirements and I’ll allow pretty much anything, then the readers can decide on their own who’s right and who’s wrong. I’m open to considering a different approach, but I won’t create a mutual admiration society and I don’t want to turn off comments altogether. Drop a comment or email with any thoughts.
The thing that makes your blog stand out from most others is that you don’t yell and scream when someone disagrees with you. You seem to want people to give you a dissenting opinion. As much as what I say may be pretty ridiculous or flat out dumb, you at least never called me that.
Vince Powell | Dec 18, 2007 | Reply
I appreciate blogs that allow comments like yours. I try to keep the same approach on my blog. My rules pretty much consists of “no profanity” and “no name calling;” and the overwhelming majority behave. I’ve only had to put two people on moderation in 4 years.
On my blog I prefer for my posts to stay “on topic” too, but I have discovered that some of the best discussions come when they stray, so I don’t “enforce” a rule on that preference. Sometimes it will encourage me to put a post up on the new topic that everyone is interested in speaking on.
I try not to criticize people’s differing views on their approach to comments, because different people have different goals with their blogs, and well, it is their blog!
I disagree with people who think their first amendment right extends to other people’s blogs, when it doesn’t; even when I’ve felt that myself. 
My personal view though, is that it is immature when people call others names on their blog and then don’t allow a response to their accusations. It’s the electronic equivalent of sticking one’s fingers in their ears and yelling “La, la , la.” However, their need to “grow up” (Eph 4:15) doesn’t remove their right to have “a mutual admiration society,” as you put it, if they want to, and I’d always defend their right to do so.
Thanks for the open forum and for –not- doing that, as others have.
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Tony | Jan 7, 2008 | Reply