Thursday, October 30, 2008

Comment Thoughts

Ok, for the two or three folks that read my blog I am looking for some input. . .

Should I turn off Anonymous Comments?

I got some butt head comments on the last few posts. Now if the idiot had read the blog and comments it would have quickly seen that I publish comments that don't agree with me. It is all about a discussion after all.

I am a bit torn though, I know that blogs get trolls, and I have been lucky so far but they piss me off. If you want to say something have the guts to sign your name or don't say it.

I am not really sure what to do. I think I will leave them enabled for now and just delete comments that don't add to the discussion but I am not sure. Maybe I just need to see how often I get the trolls and deal with them case by case. . . .

What do you do on your blogs for this stuff???

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I've never moderated and have never disallowed anonymous comments and I've never had too much trouble with it.

I've had a couple of trolls, but I either just ignore them at which point they go away, or ridicule them until they realize how stupid they're making themselves look...depending on the situation.

I've never deleted a comment. The closest I've ever come was with a stalker who was trying to figure out where I lived. He thought he'd tracked me down and kept posting the address and phone number of some poor schmuck who was probably wondering what all the crank calls were about. Anyway, I didn't even delete those comments, just edited them and redacted the poor innocent soul's contact info.

But I digress (as ussual)...what works for me may not work for you...the internet is not a one-size-fits-all environment, so take whatever action fits your style the best.

JD said...

Ya, I want to keep thing open and believe in a free exchange of ideas on the net. I am leaning to doing nothing unless it gets really out of hand...

Borepatch said...

I agree with SailorCurt, although he has a lot more experience at this than I do.

The answer to an asshat is other comments, and the proper reply to a troll is "Remember, everyone, don't feed the trolls."

Personally abusive comments are a different matter, but that's just me. That said, I haven't deleted any comments (only blogging 4 months), but would do it for this.

John said...

I think you should leave it open. It's a credit to you that you let dissenters post.

That said, if there is a truly abusive anonymous post that doesn't contribute to the conversation I think it's ok to quash it.

TOTWTYTR said...

Because of an idiotic, no ranting lunatic, comment on my blog I've turned on moderation. I don't think anonymous posting is the issue, it's just the nuts out there. My comment volume is pretty small, so it's not a problem for me, but larger blogs might find moderation problematic.

Anonymous said...

I have toyed with the idea of comment moderation in the past, but still have not activated it. I parse out spam comments without mercy, so those are gone. As for individual comments, I allow anonymous comments (in that you do not have to provide a real email address), and I let just about anything fly. I delete all comments I receive from one person in particular, but that is solely because he incessantly tries to post up personal information about me and my family.

Have not had too much trouble either way, though :).