Butchtastic Comment Approval Guidelines

In the wake of recent spiteful comments and crap flung from troll monkeys, I feel compelled to communicate the guidelines I follow when determining whether to approve a comment, or not.

The first thing you should know is that blogs belong to the blogger.  Some bloggers don’t allow comments at all, they don’t care to hear from the masses, washed or unwashed.  Some bloggers keep their posts under lock and key, allowing only a select few readers to have the password.  For most bloggers, their blog is a work of passion, something they do for fun.  Most of us aren’t making money through blogging.  These are not public spaces, the first amendment does not apply.  If I don’t like something you’re saying, I can prevent you from saying it.  I pay the bills here, I get to call the tune.  That said, I really, really love getting comments, most of the time.

Now, a little history on my experience with comments on this blog.  I went from open  to moderated comments because someone who isn’t a fan, and who enjoys being hurtful, left comments attacking my loved ones by name.  This was after a series of very critical, nasty and hurtful comments left by this person.  Naming names went over the edge and I realized that I couldn’t trust everyone to play fair anymore, so I turned on comment moderation.

I have a few regular readers who are anti-fans, who don’t approve of what I do or how I do it, though they can’t seem to help coming back to read about it day after day.  They will occasionally leave an inflammatory, caustic comment with the goal of hurting my feelings, pissing me off and/or getting me riled up.  I don’t think that furthers any sort of discussion, so I don’t approve them.  I’ve gotten comments from people who disagree with me, who take issue with my lifestyle and choices and who manage to do so in an intelligent and respectful manner.  When disagreement is communicated in a respectful manner, I’ll publish the comment even if I don’t agree with it.  So it’s not necessary to give me virtual blowjobs and comment in a sycophantic manner to get your words published (regardless of what some of my anti-fans say).  You just need to be respectful.. bonus points awarded for a well written, intelligent argument.

So here are my guidelines, in case you care:

Comments will be rejected if …

1) they attack my loved ones with no further purpose but to hurt; that kind of personal attacks are not valid comments and have no place on this blog

2) attack me in a non constructive, irresponsible manner with no further purpose but to hurt me and make the commenter feel superior; this is my blog, not yours, serve your ego somewhere else

3) they are spam…

Comments will be approved if …

1) they provide contrary opinions in a respectful manner.

2) they tell me how wonderful I am

3) they aren’t spam …

 

Questions, comments?  Before I close this, I’d like to thank my regular readers, whether they comment or not, I can see you in my stats and I know most of you aren’t assholes.   Thanks 🙂

This content is published under the Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported license.