Brief Administrative Note Re: Deleted Comments
Posted on January 19, 2010 Posted by John Scalzi 25 Comments
This is a general comment, but goes particularly to the person who I recently booted off a thread and subsequently sent their comments to the trash:
As a point of information, when I’ve decided that you’re done with a thread and that your subsequent comments will not show up on the thread, I don’t actually read any of the comments you attempt to post after that point. They just go straight to the trash, unread, at which point I delete them, unread. So writing ten or so follow-up comments, presumably to make some point or other about something, or to communicate your ire to me, or whatever, is the blog equivalent of you talking to wall. No one is listening, least of all me, because I decided you were done talking here. If you have a problem with that, consult the Site Disclaimer and Comment Policy, which should inform you of my response on the subject.
Also, as a general rule, if I’ve deleted your comment, for whatever reason, if you want to attempt to complain about the deletion, the best way to do it is in e-mail, because bitching about having your comment deleted is just boring derailing nonsense, so I’ll just clip that out too. If you send me an e-mail to gripe, I might respond, but if you try to turn a comment thread into a referendum on how you’ve been wronged, I definitely won’t respond, save to snip out the comment and dump you into “trash” queue. Contrary to your apparent opinion, moderation of the site is not a debatable topic, nor do I care what you think of my choice to moderate the site.
The correct response in a comment thread to a deleted message is to either apologize, if you feel my deletion had basis, or to continue your discussion in a less contentious manner, which I’m generally happy to let you do. Either way, deal with it and move on.
Thanks.
Whenever the topic of moderation of blog comments comes up, I’m so tempted to look up one of those Voltaire quotes on the virtues of moderation.
Dang. I always miss the good stuff.
“We have a natural right to make use of our pens as of our tongue, at our peril, risk and hazard.” – Voltaire
Not on moderation as such, but it struck me as appropriate.
While my opinion doesn’t matter much, I fully approve of our host’s practices regarding moderation and I’ve yet to see him act in anything other than a fair manner.
Oh, Teacher hauled out the red pen!
So basically, “Be excellent to each other” or we aren’t allowed to play.
I approve of this. Also, why is this still news to anyone reading this site?
Brett:
Some people are new.
Is that why we saw the Loving Mallet of Correction in the picture of your work space?
Oh, it’s always there.
I think we need to see a piece interviewing the Loving Mallet of Correction and getting its opinion.
Dr. Phil
John, do you ever post “best of” your slapping of morons? I think it would be entertaining and humiliating to the poster – which would also be entertaining. Since I haven’t picked up “Your Hate Mail will be Graded”, I apologize if it is in there already.
I agree with Eli in saying ‘Dang, I always miss the good stuff.’
Woot, I missed the nastyness.
I once banned a guy on my blog for essentially shouting down any opposition to this guy’s point of view.
One of the filtered comments went, “You’re blocking me? What about freedom?”
My response?
It’s a big Internet, and I don’t owe you my corner of it.
When that didn’t work, I met him with the all-powerful “Go f*** yourself!”
See? We can learn from Dick Cheney.
Ditto to missing the good stuff. Dagnabbit, I hate to miss a good blogfight from Scalzi, even if Scalvi vs. ______ is the blogging equivalent of Mike Tyson vs. everyone Mike Tyson clobbered.
Oh John,
Must i remind you again……
YOU
CAN’T
FIX
STUPID..
but nice try
Harvey sends…
To my fellow commenters: In my experience, the comments that get someone banned are rarely as exciting, entertaining, or infuriating as we imagine them to be. Usually, they’re annoying and repetitive and demonstrate a severe clue deficiency, nothing more.
I’d encourage you all to dream up your own private “Here’s what I think happened” comment threads, because they’ll almost certainly outstrip the reality.
**** *** ** ******* ****** comment deleted by me because it was mean and rude (not towards Mr. Scalzi) but know I was thinking it.
Andrew @# 16: But John’s little quips in place of the deleted comments are worth the price of admission.
I suppose I’ll have to continue getting my drama from the late night wars, re: #2, #11, #12, #16, and #18.
@15 Pucca:
He’s not trying to fix stupid, he is simply telling stupid to get off his lawn.
One of the reasons this place is nice, although not all that conversationally stimulating, is because there just isn’t much in the way of provocateurism here. If J.S. wants more fire in the hole, he can always stimulate the monkeys with more politics…or religion!
@9: I imagine the only thing the mallet has to say is, “I HUNGER!”
Rick @22 wrote: I imagine the only thing the mallet has to say is, “I HUNGER!”
Given the endless supply of ‘new people’, as our Host called them, I imagine TLMoC saying something like this:
“I’ve been trying to diet for over a year now – I mean, who wants to be known as The Love-Handled Mallet of Correction? But he [Scalzi] keeps shoving new people at me! How am I supposed to reduce my intake when he does that?”
(pause)
“Does this plinth make me look fat?”
John, I have quite a lot of respect for you both generally and also your specific position regarding not putting up with bad behaviour. I must however display my pedantry by pointing out a contradiction:
If you “don’t actually read any of the comments [a commenter attempts] to post after that point”, instead “They just go straight to the trash, unread, at which point [you] delete them, unread”, then it is not possible for that commenter to “continue [their] discussion in a less contentious manner”.
With that said, I’ll bet you a duck that this just never comes up because it’s an option people don’t choose.
Chris:
Nah. Usually when I delete comments, I allow the commenter to continue posting. It’s what they do with their subsequent post that dictates whether they get their posting rights pulled.