If there is one thing I hope 2008 brings is an end to comment moderation. You read an interesting blog post and you decide to leave a comment. You put your thoughts down in the most coherent way that you can, making sure your grammar is correct and your spelling is right. You then type in the series of fuzzy letters and numbers appearing on the screen to prove that you are not a robot. Why is it that a robot can be programed to drive around on the surface of Mars and send back photos but it can’t be programed to type “er57z” when it appears on the screen?
You then press Enter and wait for your comment to appear. Instead of seeing the comment you just posted, you see a message that says something like this:
Your comment has been submitted and will be viewable once it is approved
Why must my comment be approved? I typed in the short string of fuzzy numbers and letters proving that I was not a robot. Why then do I have to have my comment approved?
I just don’t see the point. Why do some bloggers do this? What are they afraid people are going to say? Are they worried that they are going to be called a derogatory name or that a disparaging thing is going to be said about their blog? If so, it’s time to grow up. Stop being such a pussy. Either let people leave comments or don’t. Don’t insist on micromanaging each little thing someone has to say. It’s pathetic.
The thing I hate the most about bloggers that insist on approving comments is that they never inform you ahead of time that they will need to approve your comment. They could save everyone a whole bunch of time by letting that fact be known ahead of time. Not only do I not what to leave a comment if it must first be approved, I don’t want to read comments left by other readers. If the comment section doesn’t truly reflect what other readers are thinking, I don’t want to waste my time reading it.
I do this but its entirely for SPAM reasons. I do not however use a captcha when leaving comments tho. But since I enjoy your blog so much, I’m going to turn off comment moderation on my blog for the new year and see how it works out.
I can see both sides of this issue. Over at CBH, we don’t moderate our comments. But I can see why some people would like to.
Depending on the nature of the blog, comment moderation might be good.
I don’t hate moderation as much as I hate having to type that crazy bullshit nonsense in. I know it’s a necessary evil- we have it at CBH- but I hate it.
Hm. I’m going to turn off my moderation too. Look, Rick, you’re changing the world, one blog at a time!
Rachel, you had comment moderation? I remember leaving comments, but I don’t ever remember them having to get approved.
I wasn’t really talking about blogspot blogger blogs. With those, I can see the point of putting in place moderation to keep the spam down. I was mostly (in my mind at least) talking about people using the WordPress blogging platform. We WordPress users have groovy plugins to combat spam such as Akismet.
The WordPress users that have to micromanage every little comment are doing it to filter out comments they don’t like. I know this because I have left such comments that were never (surprise, surprise) approved.
I do have comment moderation, and I was doing it to keep spam down, specifically. I have had a no-censorship policy on non-spam comments for several years, because I had a particularly nasty blow up with a former friend about censoring a comment he left for me. Since then I’ve decided to just let every comment go, to give every side of the story.
Rachel