For those new to the blogging world, to “moderate” comments is to require that I pre-approve them before they appear on the site. I rarely moderate comments. I wish I never had to do it at all.
If I politely ask someone to discontinue a line of discussion or change his tone and that doesn’t suffice, I put the commenter on moderation — which is a pain in the neck for me and for the commenter, as it may be hours, or even days, before I have a chance to check the moderation box and allow the comment through.
Any posts with multiple links will be automatically treated as spam by the software and sent to me to approve or disapprove. And every once in a while, someone gets caught in the spam filter for reasons I can’t figure out. It just happens.
I’m going to be tied up Thursday and Friday and may not be able to get to the comments. And Wednesday is filled with church meetings. So I may not get to everything until Saturday or Sunday. But I’ll try to log in as I have time — if I have time.
The posts for the next few days are already written and will pop up at their usual times.
So be good. Stick to the subject. And the next commenter to call another commenter a liar (or the equivalent) gets put on moderation without further warning. No fighting words.
It's sad, but it's a fact that we often behave on the Internet in a fashion that we would never do in face-to-face interactions. Sorry you had to implement this, but I'm certainly not surprised.
Grace and peace,
Tim Archer