Since You Ask
A couple of people have asked me why I’ve got the comments moderated, because moderation slows down the discussion, and discourages active commentary. Main reason is laziness. I’ve been too lazy to upgrade to better spam protection on this blog, so I simply locked the door to keep the spammers out (averaging 50/day at the moment, the last batch being more insurance than anything else; seems like I get 1-2 spam subjects per day, but they try to spam every single post).
Yes, it detracts from the instantaneous commentary, but could it be that this is, in itself, overrated? It lets the heat of the moment pass, and I’ve noticed the commentary I have received is far more civil than is the norm for Inet commentary. Could the time delay be a partial cause of that, or are you simply better behaved than most of the Inet crowd?
No, I don’t think that comment moderation generates more reflective posts. Not from what I’ve seen on my blog. People just spew whatever pops into their tiny little minds. (OK, not fair to my faithful and reflective readers. Sorry.) If the person making the comment was allowed to edit or delete their comment while it was being held in the moderation queue, then that delay between the time it was originally written and when it showed up on the blog (I think) would generate more thoughtful, moderate and articulate comments. I’ve often seen this on boards where the user will go back and rewrite or delete their post after they have had time to reflect.
I have comment moderation turned on also, and I don’t care if it discourages comments or slows down the discussion. The spam filters don’t catch everything and the spam that shows up in the moderation queue would *also* turn readers and commenters away.
I recently posted my thoughts on spammers, It’s An Insult To Pond Scum, and even more recently started a thread on my board: Am I A Fascist Control Freak? Anyone who thinks Arlen ought to turn off comment moderation should read both of those posts. I don’t know if comment moderation slows down or discourages posting, but I do know that it makes the sites that use it great places to visit and read. 🙂
The one difficulty I’ve noted is that I can’t always get in to moderate when I want to. Probably specific to this host (it’s free, so I can’t complain overmuch about service) but I’ve actually not been able to to get in here since Sunday.
I agree that it’s a hosting problem. The reason I posted multiple comments all at once is that though I’ve been seeing new material come up on the feed, every time I tried to hit the site I couldn’t access it. 🙁 So, I was playing catch up when I could get here. It’s not uncommon for me to have access problems with this site. 🙁