Scoble says if your name isn’t on the list you’re not getting in. Scoble was once boastful about not moderating comments and very very very rarely deleting them. Now he’s become an editor of the thoughts of others and if he doesn’t like your comment he’ll delete it. I’m sure we’ll all be comforted with a new suckup cartoon from Hugh Macleod that’ll make everything better.
Damien Mulley
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Damien, that’s clearly not what he says. He wants to moderate based on content and tone, not on who you are.. so there is no “party-list” 🙂
Btw, my personal preference is to not moderate, but understand and accept the “my blog = my house” rule, and who knows, if I had the flood of comments Robert has, pehaps I’d lean in that direction, too.
Re: Censoring Blog Comments
Nick Carr received an offensive comment which another reader asked him to remove. His response:“My policy is to let idiots speak freely. It makes them easier to spot.” I like that policy. Vinnie further laments on the ethics of deleting /…
I think the problem is that Scoble boasted about being moderation-free. He’s now decided to moderate which means his comments content is now subject to review. Are we meant to trust him to moderate only actually offensive comments or are we to just assume he’s human and believe that he will moderate the comments he believes ” add value to either my life or the lives of my readers.”
Define value?
Does something showing the obvious shortcomings in Origami (http://gigaom.com/2006/04/14/origami-or-ohmygoodmi/), which Scoble raved about, get moderated? Who knows. Are we to believe the social pressure of maintaining a popular blog is hard to bear?
MJ: if you are a balanced person who wants a conversation about technology and the industry, I doubt I’d delete you, even if you posted something anti-Microsoft.
But, if you’re here JUST to bash me or Microsoft then maybe not. I don’t let those kinds of people into my family room. They are welcome to post on their blog. I still read every blog that writes the word “Microsoft” in it.
And anyone who loves reading anti-Microsoft stuff does the same, I’m sure.
The problem, Robert, is that it’s now an issue of trust. Your audience should be mature enough to sift out the oiks. I do think, however, that Patrick doesn’t need to see it and, to be honest, I don’t have a problem with moderation per se – just this reads more like a “party line” 🙂
It’s not going to stop me reading your blog, even if you are a Evil Empire in Redmond Shill 😀
(and apologies to Damien for using this playground)
Comments are a dangerous sandpit, as anybody with more than 2000 visitors a day can verify. Above that threshold and you start getting stalkers and demented attention-seekers. You’re damned if you don’t scan the comments you receive and damned if you let them remain when they’re insulting, racist, spammy, or foaming with invective. There’s no way I’m not going to delete racist or sexist comments from stuff I pay to host. And there’s no way I’m going to feel guilty about maintaining that kind of heavy-handed policy. If Scoble continually gets maggots who spew stupid comments, let him turn off the lights on everybody. He isn’t the first to do it and his practise heralds the way that I think most businesses will run the read-write part of their blogs.
MJ: fair enough. There are plenty of places to get the anti-Microsoft point of view. That isn’t what I’m out to delete anyway. You’ll see plenty of anti-Microsoft stuff get into my comments. I’m more protecting my family room from the kinds of stuff that Bernie is talking about.
I find it hard to have sympathy for Scoble now tossing his rattler in the playpen. His griefing on the harmless “Cringely” comes on the heels of the extraordinary attacks he made on Andrew Orlowski of The Reg (and one of the best tech journalists out there).
It’s no good his coming crying from rows he has deliberately started himself, and expecting tea and cookies.
Regarding the maggots out there – you can see why Dave W doesn’t entertain much in the way of commentary (and Dave is an old timer who I quite like though he has a singular talent for pissing people off).
Robert – you’re A-list now. Moderating comments NOW is like a celebrity deciding to ban Papparazzi. Okay, you’re not trying to run them over in your oldsmobile or smash the cameras but still. Slashdot has the best moderation system I’ve seen. Or rather, the stupidheads out there don’t get see because you can set a threshold….
I quite like Cringely, not on a personal level cos I don’t know him, but his manner is amiable, his articles are a fun read without an agenda other than to entertain.
I can understand his distain for Orlowski. Just the other day I stepped in some Orlowski, even after scraping it off, it took ages to convince myself there wasn’t a lingering odour.
Orlowski is a dick. It’s like reading a tech journalist for the Daily Mirror.
I quite like Cringely, not on a personal level cos I don’t know him, but his manner is amiable, his articles are a fun read without an agenda other than to entertain.
I agree entirely. ‘Cringely’ has always been an fun, gentle read with his predictions. He recently, however, wrote this, which may have considerably ruffled feathers over at Redmond and lie at the root of recent hostility from that quarter.
I can understand his distain for Orlowski. Just the other day I stepped in some Orlowski, even after scraping it off, it took ages to convince myself there wasn’t a lingering odour.
I can’t agree. Most of the business tech press are no better than stenographers for the latest MS products, and The Reg is a lone voice of criticism of this elephant in the room.
What has Orlowski situation have to do with weeding out the spammy, abusive comments? I think Robert has the right to so what he wants with his own blog. That’s right it’s his blog.
If people feel the need to post these kind of comments at all, let them do it on their own patch.
Alexia writes: What has Orlowski situation have to do with weeding out the spammy, abusive comments?
Well….if we weeded out spammy, abusive, content-less babble, we’d never have heard of Orlowski.
El Reg used to be very partisan. Now they’re more….tabloid.
What has Orlowski situation have to do with weeding out the spammy, abusive comments?
(And the attacks on the hapless ‘Cringely’, too, you may remember)
‘Cause those two episodes are (from my limited paying attention to Scoble) what’s prompted this latest bout of childishness.
I think Robert has the right to so what he wants with his own blog. That’s right it’s his blog.
And it’s the privilege of commenters to take issue with what he does with it, and say so. That’s right it’s a free country.
Sounds like Scoble’s “Naked Conversations” have become “Naked One Sided Moderated Monologues.” Only yes-men and the amen corner need apply.
The family room kick is flawed, a family room is in a private residence, blogs are public by nature. His blog, and free to do as wish, do note however, that it directly contradicts everything in his book.