{"id":17832,"date":"2014-01-29T05:30:04","date_gmt":"2014-01-29T10:30:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=17832"},"modified":"2014-01-29T14:35:36","modified_gmt":"2014-01-29T19:35:36","slug":"a-technological-fix-for-my-new-years-blog-resolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2014\/01\/a-technological-fix-for-my-new-years-blog-resolution\/","title":{"rendered":"A technological fix for my New Year’s blog resolution?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

So, how are you doing with your New Year\u2019s resolution <\/a>to monitor the comments on your blog and establish a higher tone of discourse?\u00a0\u00a0 That was the gist of what one of this blog\u2019s readers put to me, making the point that the personal insults, hi-jacking of threads, and offensive comments have come back in force.\u00a0\u00a0 I told him that I was keeping my New Year\u2019s resolution about the same way that most people have been keeping theirs by this time of the year (not even getting out of January)\u2013namely, not keeping it at all.\u00a0 I can offer excuses\u2013another death in the family requiring unexpected travel, the press of other projects coming due, expected travel for professional commitments, classes starting, etc.\u2013but I have not given up.\u00a0\u00a0 In addition, there have been other problems with Disqus, the discussion software this blog is stuck with, with comments disappearing and re-appearing, flagged comments sometimes going into moderation and sometimes not, and probably others.\u00a0 So thanks to you readers who alerted me to these problems, and I apologize for the annoyances.\u00a0 Anyway, I talked with the Patheos tech people, and let me explain what we have come up with.<\/p>\n

\n

If anyone flags a comment as offensive, it will go into moderation.\u00a0 It will also disappear from the thread with the notation \u201cThis comment is awaiting moderation.\u201d\u00a0 Before, it took quite a few separate flags for this to happen.\u00a0 Now, only one<\/em> offended person can send the comment to a Purgatorial state.\u00a0 This should be an incentive for everyone to \u201cexplain everything in the kindest way,\u201d as we are told to do in the Catechism.\u00a0 This can be done, no matter how sharp the disagreement, and it will be good practice for all.<\/p>\n

But here is another feature:\u00a0 If the comment \u201cis awaiting moderation,\u201d you can still read it if you want to!\u00a0 Click \u201cshow comment\u201d and you can read everything that was said, reply to it, and interact with the more controversial comments.\u00a0 I, for one, appreciate some of the more pointed comments and find it helpful to engage with people who disagree strongly with me.<\/p>\n

Eventually, I hope to \u201cmoderate\u201d the flagged comments, reading through them and releasing at least some of them into the main line of discourse.\u00a0 Understand, though, that this takes time, and it takes my having the time.\u00a0 Some of the comments I will leave in limbo.\u00a0 Others I will delete (particularly those that use obscene language).<\/p>\n

Yes, I know the one-flag rule can be abused, but let\u2019s try in good faith to make it work.\u00a0 I have noticed some tit-for-tat flagging on both sides of an argument.\u00a0 With the new settings, the two complementary offensive arguments\u2013which readers in general dislike and\u00a0 find distracting\u2013will both disappear from the main thread.\u00a0 Unless, of course, someone wants to read them.<\/p>\n

Readership on this blog is surging, by the way.\u00a0 That means we get a lot of new people dropping in.\u00a0 I want them to be welcomed.\u00a0 Nasty disputes scare them away and intimidate them from commenting.\u00a0 This also means \u201coutsiders\u201d from our long-established community will be weighing in, offering different opinions and perspectives.\u00a0 We need to be open to that.\u00a0 At the same time, hostile outsiders can\u2019t be allowed to just take over. \u00a0 The person who\u00a0 reminded me of my\u00a0 New Year\u2019s resolution\u00a0 also made some shrewd connections to my Jesse James <\/a>, pointing out that communities need to protect themselves.\u00a0 And yet those little Minnesota towns ended up showing much grace to the Younger brothers, after they shot them up.<\/p>\n

I know, I know.\u00a0 There are no technological solutions to issues of the human heart, but let\u2019s try this.<\/p>\n

UPDATE:\u00a0 It seems that someone, miffed that his comments were getting flagged yesterday (when the new settings were put into place), started flagging EVERYBODY, including comments that were innocent observations.\u00a0 That\u2019s Jesse James attacking Northfield and will not be tolerated.\u00a0 Anyone doing that sort of thing will be banned.\u00a0 Sorry about that.\u00a0 I\u2019m working to release those comments that were flagged unjustly.<\/p>\n

ANOTHER UPDATE:\u00a0 Well, I have just spent the best part of the morning of a busy day going through several hundred flagged comments.\u00a0 The biggest part of them I approved, including the victims of yesterday\u2019s \u201cflagocalypse.\u201d\u00a0 Some of them I didn\u2019t, particularly those with, what shall we say, inappropriate personal references.\u00a0 Let us have as a rule that there are to be no negative personal references to or about the person you are arguing with.\u00a0 No calling anyone \u201cstupid,\u201d or a bad pastor, or \u201cliar,\u201d or \u201cyou call yourself a Christian,\u201d or \u201cyou always. . .,\u201d etc., etc.\u00a0 People on all sides of debates have been doing this, and it\u2019s just ugly to read.\u00a0 You don\u2019t need to say anything about the person you are addressing or disagreeing with.\u00a0 Just state your point.\u00a0\u00a0 Perhaps sometimes there is a place for that, but that place is not on my blog.\u00a0 As far as who was responsible for the flagocalypse and who needs to be exiled, some of you accused someone who denies flagging anybody, so I\u2019ll take his word.\u00a0 I\u2019ll see if we have the technology to identify a lurker.\u00a0 But if this goes on, I may have to just ban the biggest perpetrators of the personal insults, which would include some people I think highly of and who have made many positive contributions to this blog.\u00a0 But this whole exercise has been very depressing.\u00a0 There was a time when this blog was famous for its high level of discourse, and I am resolved to return it to that level.<\/p>\n

YET ANOTHER UPDATE:\u00a0 Thanks to suggestions some of you have made, I have asked Patheos to reset Disqus once again, so that it will take THREE flags of a comment to send it into moderation limbo.\u00a0 More on this tomorrow.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So, how are you doing with your New Year\u2019s resolution to monitor the comments on your blog and establish a higher tone of discourse?\u00a0\u00a0 That was the gist of what one of this blog\u2019s readers put to me, making the point that the personal insults, hi-jacking of threads, and offensive comments have come back in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2543,2581],"class_list":["post-17832","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","tag-blog-comments","tag-disqus"],"yoast_head":"\nA technological fix for my New Year's blog resolution?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"So, how are you doing with your New Year's resolution to monitor the comments on your blog and establish a higher tone of discourse?\u00a0\u00a0 That was the gist\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" 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