I assure folks that the last thing I have a desire to do is to censor or monitor comments, but despite receiving a heartfelt plea from several commenters that their behavior would get an upgrade and that they would work to contribute to a more constructive atmosphere here, some have slipped into old habits — and I’ve had a ton of complaints.
I have no patience for toxic, vulgar ad hominem attacks on anyone — and thus, am for a while turning on the comments review function again. When things get back to a tone I can accept, then I’ll stop this review. I encourage folks to debate, to critique, to challenge — but if you can’t do it in a civil way, get your own blog. You may not participate here.
I don’t care what you think is right — or what others believe the standards should be. When I receive a dozen or so complaints, that means that hundreds, if not thousands, are offended who did not write. No appeals here — and for the record, I have no patience with people who want to debate my rules, test the lines, or want to argue that I have “sold out” because I won’t permit their vulgarity to dominate the comments section. Some who comment bully others — and I’m now getting lots of comments that otherwise would have been posted to the blog emailed to me privately because they don’t want to be personally attacked by some others who comment.
I’m working on some options that may allow me to accept automatically comments from “trusted commenters” and then review others, but thus far, my platform isn’t allowing me to do this. Will do my best to get a better option up — but for the time being, because of the disappointing behavior of a few, I need to institute this.
Will work to review comments as best I can on a timely basis — but the reality is I’m extremely busy. Shame on those of you who have caused this.
— Steve Clemons
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