Notice: A “Procedural” Matter Regarding This Blog

Wikimedia CC Puno — The Wikimedia Commons caption to this public domain photograph: “Panoramic view of the city of Puno next to the Lake Titicaca, in the Peruvian Andes, not far from Bolivia. Puno is the capital city of the Puno Province and has a population of approx. 150,000. It was established in 1668 by the Spanish nobleman and viceroy Pedro Antonio Fernández de Castro. The lake is, by volume of water, the largest in South America and, with a surface elevation of 3,812 metres (12,507 ft), it’s considered the highest navigable lake in the world. The lake has a max. length of 190 kilometres (120 mi) and width of 80 kilometres (50 mi) and a surface of 8,372 square kilometres (3,232 sq mi), whereas the water volume is 893 cubic kilometres (214 cu mi) with a max. depth of 281 metres (922 ft) and an average depth of 107 metres (351 ft).”

Maybe procedural isn’t the right word, but I’m in something of a hurry right now, so it will need to suffice.

An unusually large number of reader comments have been ending up in my “Pending” file of late. Which means that they await my approval before they appear publicly.

One of the ways that this occurs is if a reader “flags” or reports a comment, or wants me to review it. Such “flagging” has been quite useful on occasion — when, say, some excessively angry but inarticulate critic has posted obscenities. I’m not always online to notice such things, and I’m happy when an alert reader removes them.

But I don’t sense, in this case, that it’s a reader (or a group of readers) that is doing this. And there’s no clear ideological drift that I can detect. Yes, certain critical comments have shown up in my “Pending” folder, but so have comments from friends. So, even, have some of my own comments or responses — in several cases within mere seconds of my having posted them.

The “spam” detection function or filter seems to have become a bit hyperactive. I have no idea why that would be so. Most comments still make it through, but a relatively small number of seemingly random comments don’t.

So there’s probably no conspiracy. Certainly I’m not engaged in a campaign of censorship — though, of course, I do reserve the right to delete comments whenever I choose to do so. It’s a right that I’ve very rarely exercised — chiefly in cases of flagrant obscenity or gross personal insult directed at your humble servant.

I bring all of this up to let you know what’s likely happening if a comment that you’ve posted fails to appear or suddenly disappears. Don’t be worried. I’ll get to such posts when I’m able.

However, I won’t always be able to get to them right away. On this trip, for example, I’ve very often been in places (e.g., deep in the Amazon rainforest, or well above 14,ooo feet on an isolated road through the Andes) where I’ve been without WiFi or simply busy with other things. I’m not always online even when I’m home in the States. Speaking of which, I’ll be spending part of the day today and much of tomorrow in airports and on airplanes.

I’ll do what I can, but I ask your patience.

Posted from Puna, Peru