WHY COMMENT MODERATION IS IMPORTANT
At 4.35am this morning an anonymous comment was left on my blog making unsubstantiated claims against another person. These comments were extremely serious but had nothing whatsoever to do with this blog, with anyone I know or anything I have ever written about.
It appears the anonymous poster targeted other Thailand-based blogs, some of which do not employ comment moderation which resulted in the comments being published.
I've said time and time again that bloggers are publishers and have the same responsibilities as the biggest media organisations in the world. The comments left in this case were making claims of serious legal wrongdoing. Any newspaper publishing the same comments would face the very real possibility of legal action, as would any bloggers that allow similar comments to be published.
Please, if you're a blogger and you don't have comment moderation enabled do it now. It's not an issue of free speech - it's about protecting yourself from those who want to abuse your website.
10 comments:
Sure it pays to be careful, but where does it end?
Censorship is a slippery slope that is all too often abused by those with hidden agendas that are far more dangerous than the discussion they try to stifle.
Did you warn the respective blogger?
The comments were anonymous and all I can establish is they were made by someone from London who came from a a website that lists Thai blogs.
These were not spam; they were very specific and serious allegations against a named individual. Anyone, blogger or otherwise, publishing such allegations would be at serious risk of libel.
K-o-C, I do get your point about censorship but I would rather have the opportunity to review comments before publishing than publishing something like that and facing legal action.
In almost three years I have only rejected around four or five comments (that weren't spam), and even with those I have removed the legally problematic parts and published the rest. I've had no complaints.
Hi Dan.
Yes. Due to the serious nature of the allegations, and the realization I was probably not alone in getting such comments on my blog, I did make contact with the subject of the allegations (the comments made reference to the person and the website) to inform them. In a reverse situation I would hope someone would do the same to me.
Did your site get the comments too?
Fair enough, it sounds like you made the right call if the comment was as personal as you suggest.
But with freedom of speech taking a bit of a hammering in Thailand right now, it's important to distinguish between 'comment moderation' and censorship.
cheers :)
I understand klongofconsciousness's concern, but "censorship" is done by the government. A blog owner (or private newspaper or broadcaster, etc.) can control what he prints, for whatever reason he wants. The flip side of censorship is an individual's right to control his own message -- including what others submit for publication.
"A blog owner (or private newspaper or broadcaster, etc.) can control what he prints, for whatever reason he wants."
Exactly. Off-topic is a legitimate reason but not stifling debate is important because that's what web 2.0 is all about.
Googling "Erik Young Thailand" certainly shows something completely off topic and mentally disturbed. (On the other hand, There are some really nasty things that never see the media light of day in this country and how to deal with them is a real issue, particularly given the reality of criminal defamation laws).
As a guy who runs a blog site. I can assure anyone here that if it would not be for moderation almost all comments would be how to get an MBA, viagra, levitra and cialis pills etc etc etc
It would be spam.
Thanks for your comment Bernard. I guess I am lucky; I've only had a handful spamming comments in the almost three years I've been blogging. It's either that or my blog just isn't important enough. ;-)
I've had some craziness on my other blogs (designers can get pretty hot headed) but I haven't had anything slanderous on my Thai blog... yet.
I'm all for comment moderation.
In my opinion, if it doesn't add to the conversation, then it is dubious at best.
Mostly, there are too many looking for links back from do follow blogs, so I delete with this in mind.
Makes for slimmer comments but at least WLT is not filled with 'great design' 'nice topic' or other generic and totally useless statements.
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