The Moderate Voice has experimented with different flavors and varieties of comments. Off-site regular. On-site. Off-site forum. Etc. We have been trying to make the comment area a place of fiery yet respectful conversation. But it seems that the overall political landscape and economic climate has many people firing with the verbal “nasty stuff” way too much at times. The solution? Mandatory comment approvals.
Are we just going to implement that? No. But it is being discussed. We prefer not to nanny state the comments but the atmosphere is pushing us closer and closer to that. Now we are not naive. Sometimes a post contributes to the “nasty stuff”. And that is something we shall address internally. But we have seen well-written posts become the target of excessive abuse. That helps nothing and just pours gasoline on a fire.
What say you commenters? Would you prefer the Almighty Comment Overlords to approve each and every comment in their infinite yet humorous wisdom (“how about we change that word to ‘bunnyshoot’ instead of the nasty word”)? And remember that will take away from a flowing discussion. Or can we rely on you to tone it down? Be forceful! Be direct! Be pointed! But chill with the nastiness.
Your decision…
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On a related note, we are very close to a decision to move to standard comments again (basically removing the in-house forum). No re-registering necessary. In fact you won’t have to do anything different.
I’m not complex. Don’t have time for all that. And all that complex stuff bad for the stomach. Just color me simple and plain with a twist.