Troll control

Apologies to readers for allowing a little troll fest to take place in some of the posts below this one. Moderating isn't an exact science.

First up, I ought to point out that Jews sans frontieres has four bloggers now, Gabriel, Nedster, David Landy and me. We all have an equal right to post here though technically I think I might have more control of the blog than they do. Now the comments are entirely controlled by me because the others feel they've done me enough of a favour by blogging! I think that's it. Well I could let all comments through and delete any that I think are inappropriate or I could continue doing what I do which is moderating. This means I get to see the comment - actually sometimes it's in a shorter or anyway, less comprehensible form - and who has left it before deciding whether to "approve" or "delete". It means also that I am deciding for my co-bloggers what's fit to allow through so the bar on trolls goes a little lower if the post isn't by me just in case my chums want to respond.

Well I'm going to have to be a bit more discerning as to what gets through and what doesn't. Anyone can start their own blog so I don't think anyone can claim they have been unfairly treated or that deleting a troll's comments amounts to censorship. It's not as if I'm keeping people's comments out of the public domain.

I'll try to be fair about it but basically people should ensure that their comments are on topic, free from personal abuse and not manifestly untrue.

One more thing. I used to have a facility called cocomment. You could subscribe to it and monitor conversations on blogs that you participate in. Mine hasn't worked for some time now but when it did it published comments simply because they had been made. It meant that comments were published on the cocomment site whether I approved them or not. It might still exist or there may be similar facilities. Well if people really want to keep up with their own comments and other peoples they can try to find a facility like that.

I think that's it but by all means let me have your honest opinion in the comments below this post.

Thanks