…a radio call-in show. It is not an open public forum.
Sometimes I get complaints about how I handle comments. I received a quite thoughtful and persuasive complaint just a few hours ago. There is a teeny-tiny link on the front page of my blog that goes to my policy on comments, but I suspect few people read it.
Look folks, you are participating in my little show, here. I’m the editorial director. If you make comments, I control whether they go on air. I reject about one in fifteen comments (not counting outright spam) because they violate my guidelines. Think about it like a radio show in text form, and my policy should make sense.
As long as it is not abusive and adds something to the conversation, I want you to have your say. But I WILL argue with you. That’s what I do. And I do that by interpolating my replies into each comment. If you think that’s not fun to see your comments festooned with my replies to you, you are free to do it differently on your own damn blog.
Remember, if you want to unpublish a comment, email me and I’m happy to remove it. If you feel I’m being a bad bad man who abuses people, then I urge you to email me privately and we’ll hash it out. I can’t promise to satisfy you, but I promise to reply to you in good faith.
Those of you with whom I have a working relationship or friendship, feel free to use that to exert influence over my editorial behavior. I am susceptible to charm as long as I feel I’m not being asked to tell lies or muzzle my own ideas.
The radio call-in show is an excellent metaphore, James!
Since it’s your blog your rules appy. I have no problem wih that, if anyone comments on my blog my rules apply.
It’s interresting though that people have problems with that. It makes you wonder how they interact irl. Arguments and responses is probably my most favorite way of learning and expanding my own horizon.
Keep it up, James!
[James’ Reply: thank you]
I’m frankly astounded that you even have to remind people about this. If someone can’t understand why comments are moderated, then they obviously don’t know much about blogging or how it works. If someone wants to flame you for something you post, then he should start his own blog and rant away.
There are plenty of pretty good blogs out there that don’t allow comments at all! Commenting is a privilege, not a right.