"Your comment is awaiting moderation."
I get that at some blogs at which I comment.
The problem is that this is the blogosphere and very little is ever "moderated". No one edits comments for for language or hyperlinks or any of that sort of thing. Probably because there is no way for the Blogger himself or herself to do that.
Clicking the square that allows the Blogger to "moderate" comments on a post slows down the process of commenting. It allows time to delete comments one does not like, or comments by people one does not like.
I tried it once, on this blog, for a week, to see how it would go, and then switched back.
For sure, what is not happening is moderation. Delay, yes. Deletion, yes. Moderation, no.
I have been wanting to blog on this for some time, but have been moderating my attitudes toward the phrase, but now no longer.
Regards — Cliff
4 comments:
Hello Cliff, moderation is the blog owners choice, blog owners must decide what traffic they want, unsigned caustic or positive comments often are repeated over and over again by the same person who changes their name each time. After a recent discussion with Dick Howe I decided to make some changes on the City Life Show.
Stay warm!
Much agreed that moderation delays the back-and-forth. I can even think of times where you and I have both commented on another blog, but because of the delay caused by moderation, neither of us saw the other's comment before both were posted.
However, remember the Rita Mercier cold-dinner speech, the one about the anonymous 'bloggers'? I think a lot of people confuse content that gets put into comments on blogs with content that the blogger endorses or even condones.
I don't have to moderate (shoot, I'm still excited just to get any comment!) but if I ever ran into trouble with either spammers or hate-filled ad hominem comment writers, I would probably moderate as opposed to just letting everything through and then moderating afterwards..
Think of "moderation" the way the dictionary might: "make or become less extreme, intense, rigorous, or violent". Or, it could be this definition: "(in academic and ecclesiastical contexts) preside over (a deliberative body) or at (a debate)".
Moderation should be an active, rather than a passive activity. I grant you that the tools of blogging, at least in the less sophisticated sites, make this impossible.
As for John's point about repeated caustic comments, due to the lack of attention this blog site gets, that has not been a problem.
Regards — Cliff
Excellent post.
The web is meant to be interactive.
People are used to You Tube and Twitter where instant communication is possible.
Moderation would be no big deal if it all happened in a timely manner- it's more like just ignoring or prohibiting comments.
If someone is out of line- you could always come back and remove that post.
Sometimes moderation comes off as treating all as guilty until proven innocent.
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