Do I need a comment policy?
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As you can see this is not a big site. I don’t post regularly (unfortunate but true…). My visitors mainly ask additional questions regarding my tutorials, eventually, request more help. Till recently I have never had any bad, offensive comment made intentionally. Of course, there alwasy is the normal level of spam comments and trackbacks, but thanks to the nice folks who author anti-spam plugins, that is taken care of automatically.
Now, a few days ago I was forced to think whether I need a “commenting policy” or not.
As many of my readers know I was born and lived for a long time in a place where the freedom of speech was just a distant dream. You could end up in jail not only for trying to speak up, but even just telling a good (political) joke to the wrong person. With such a background it might be understandable that I don’t feel like censoring people’s comments. So, when I started this blog — and many others — I thought the common sense sould be enough for “policy”. I am offering here free tutorials and tips for using WordPress, and I don’t debate and discuss controversial political issues that might incite high passions. I was sure I don’t need any rules for the commenters.
Unfortunately, a distinguished professor of mine was right telling me that the common sense is the least common.
If somebody comes here from another site (following a link) just to post comments that contain personal attacks and offensive remarks, my tolerance suddenly starts shrinking. Really, do I have to tolerate comments that are not related to the topic of the post, just giving me lectures or offending me? Should I let them appear in the name of the free speech… on my own site?
Well, I won’t. Period. I don’t want to fight and argue with anybody. And, definitely, I will not argue with idiots.
P.S. To all the WP users that come here to find some ideas or help: please, don’t hesitate for a moment and do comment, ask questions, give suggestions! The rant above is not about you…
I am sorry, I want ask, what’s plugins to do this?
http://www.transycan.net/blogtest/wp-content/plugins/oiopub-direct/purchase.php
Thanks
http://www.oiopublisher.com/
Hi!
I agree with your thinking about comments. People should have an abstract freedom of speech in public forums. When a person is at home and trying to get something done in the privacy of their blog-space it is better to be more selective about who you let in the door.
Just a question about Dark Maple (nice theme - thanks!). Does it use the Update Services? In other words, when I create a post is rpc.pingomatic.com fired automatically? If so, where is it (in case I want to turn it off!).
I looked around the Technorati tips, WordPress help and the php code for a minute or two but didn’t see anything obvious so I thought I would ask you directly.
I’m using your theme at http://emsjuwel.com/kitqc2blog (please delete this line if you feel that the link is inappropriate in this comment - just thought that you would like to know)
Thank in advance
Andrew
Updating Services are not theme related, as far as I know. It is either turned on or off in your WP (options > Writing): if the rpc.pingomatic.com is the proper field and your blog’s privacy settings allow it, WP will do the rest.
And thanks for the comment!
Well, I don’t know about a comment policy, per se, but, no, I don’t see any reason to maintain comments from someone that add nothing to the discussion at hand, or are specifically designed to attack you. It’s your site, your blog, and, presumably, your nickel that pays for all this, so why should you have to put up with anyone writing things here that you don’t approve? Right, there isn’t any reason. Frankly, that’s a good policy right there. “I will not put up with any nasty, mean-spirited bullshit from commenters and I get to interpret what that means. If you don’t like it, don’t comment. Thank you.”
Hi Moshu,
I’m taking your offer of help: I need some desperately!
Could you take a look at these questions I left in the WP forums regarding getting redirected to the install.php page 99% of the time after upgrading to WP 2.5?
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/164607
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/168505
http://wordpress.org/support/topic/168505
I’ve already tried a lot of stuff…
Thanks in advance for anything you can help me with :)
On this blog my “offer” is basically related to my articles. And I help in WP Forums whenever I have time.
Unfortunately, I cannot reproduce your error, so I have no idea what the solution would be. If it is about the blog linked to your name here… to be honest, I couldn’t wait for it to load: I never look at webpages that are soooo long. Sorry. I just click Stop and Back - it is very, very not userfriendly. I don’t think any normal visitor is willing to wait until the km long page is loading.
What about making it shorter? Less queries to the database.
Plugins deactivated?
Comment policy is a really good think. You implement it once and then it will work forever.