Sunday, January 21, 2007

Comment Moderation Is Off...For Now

As an experiment I have switched off the Comment Moderation on this blog. If anyone sees a comment which they think needs my attention please email me. I suspect I will be forced to switch it on again within about half an hour, but let's see.

The reason I am doing this is because I want to encourage more spontaneous debate. I can normally approve comments fairly quickly even if I am away from my laptop as I can now do it through my Blackberry, but block approving 30 or 40 comments does tend to stifle an immediate debate.

My policy on comments is quite simple. I do not delete comments unless they are gratuitously offensive or contain a serious of four letter words. I allow comments criticising me personally unless they are Anonymous, in which case they may well get deleted.

Please do not write essays. If you want to do so, please get your own blog.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...

Let the mayhem commence!

Anonymous said...

I wouldn't be too hard on yourself, Iain. You still report the news several light years before the newspapers catch on, so waiting to have a comment approved is not something people will hold against you when you do such a good job of keeping us informed / ahead of the game.

Anonymous said...

"I allow comments critisising me personally unless they are Anonymous, in which case they may well get deleted."

What about comments criticising your spelling? :-)

Anonymous said...

If someone posts an offensive comment, why not have the police call round at 6am*

*Please make this 9am for New Labour apparatchiks.

Anonymous said...

The timing of the arrest moves according to the views of the reporter. The police could save themselves a lot of trouble by rounding up anyone who reports it was before 6.30. I think it was 7 myself.

Anonymous said...

I posted on another thread a little while ago. When my comment came straight up I was so surprised that I spilled my tea on the keyboard. Expect to hear from my no-win-no-fee lawyers tomorrow.

Anonymous said...

Iain,

I didn't realise that you personally vetted every post. How on earth do you find time to do this and fit in all your other commitments? Do you have a researcher or something? Either way – keep up the good work

Mac

(Anonymous because I can't be a*sed to sign up to blogger)

Anonymous said...

Iain does it matter if moderation is on or off ,after years of frustration us ordinairys are just getting it off our chest ,you keep us uptodate and we will and we won't comment about you ,well maybe the guy with the funny hat will, but like you he's known for setting off fireworks

dearieme said...

Poets who once knew better words
Now only use four-letter words Writing prose
Anything goes.

Good for you.

dearieme said...

Oh buggery shitty fuck it. It's not "Poets", it's "Good authors". Sorry.

Anonymous said...

Anyone want to buy some crystal meths?

Anonymous said...

What a good idea Iain , I have moutains of essay length thoughts about myself that I have been aching to publish to the world. Now I can . Also, I will be able to insult people with a sense of the immediacy of the effect.

A tremendous leap forward.I trust you will be keeping a close eye on others though. Goodness but there are some loons out there.

Anyway back to me .It all began some 43 years ago in a provincial hospital . "Push said the nruse and my mother...no hang on I need to go back further"

I `ll get back to you

Peter from Putney said...

Hmm.. Sounds like a good idea - I posted on the thread "Gordon Brown is not a lucky politician" at around 10pm yesterday and it has yet to appear.

Anonymous said...

Are you suggesting that instead of legislation some grown ups can decide what is offensive and what is not? Have you thought about the implications of this move with respect to the European Human Rights Act? What about the potential to set off a global hand wringing session if someone were to call me a Tw*t or something equally offensive??

In the current political climate it's the truth that offends not cheap insults.

Anonymous said...

Apparently the new way to insult someone is to suffix a culinary term to their name instead of their surname so, here goes, Iain Poppadom! Or should that be something else?!

Anonymous said...

So now we can repeat that story in the Mail on Sunday (via another "friend" of Prescot's court case) re Tony and Gordon being photoed together in a US hotel bed in the early 1990's and having been black mailed ever since by the USA?

..and how that explains our foreign policy for the past 10 years?

Anonymous said...

Good move. But why can't I write an essay if I want to . . .

Anonymous said...

Lord Falconer has waded in now, telling labour to back off....
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/6284635.stm

Anonymous said...

You deleted my comment some weeks ago about the "wanker" saga, which was very straightforwrd and only pointed out that I did not think Tory politicians - incidentally the paryt I would naturally choose - calling the electorate onanists was very clever or witty. I wonder why you deleted that comment, if not for the reason you wished to avoid debate?

Anonymous said...

This is the worst comment ever and should be deleted ASAP. Now for the swearing: Poo, bum, wee, etc. etc.

Anonymous said...

I a decent and dare I say brave move Iain, nice one!:)

Anonymous said...

Slightly off topic but - having not viewed your blog for a few days - I'm really impressed with the "Snap" previews.

Iain Dale said...

Nice to see everyone is behavin themselves very well so far!