Monday, January 8, 2007

On Moderated Comments





Demosthenes Practicing Oratory
by Jean Lecomte du Nouÿ 1842-1923 BB
(Before Blogging)







Some of you may have read this note in the comments section. I thought it was worth recapping here for future reference.

A note to Anonymous:

“Sorry for editing your post. As I've written earlier, I'm experimenting with moderated comments for The Busman's Holiday. My instinct is to avoid playing host to anonymous critiques of colleagues, competitors, or public figures. There are other active online forums available for those discussions. I do welcome feedback of all kinds via personal e-mail; the nature of moderated comments here will evolve as we go. Thanks for your comment.”


-Bob Mayo

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bob,

No problem an no harm taken. Your blog is entirely your creation and a decision to censor is yours to make. In relation to Ms. Buchanan though, I recommend you read the articles on the following three locations for your own personal understanding of where such views arise:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,248339,00.html

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07079/770820-109.stm

http://www.cpmission.com/main/painpolitics/rottschaefer.html

Bob Mayo said...

Dear Anonymous,

I find myself bristling at your use of the word 'censor'. Newspapers regularly print excerpts from readers' letters, but I wouldn't regard that as censorship.

If your first comment had provided those links with documentation of the basis for your original unedited post, I likely would have let it through.

Let's use another medium as an analogy. If I were a radio talk show host, reading aloud on the air some highlights of mail received, I wouldn't be obliged to read on-the -air every word of every letter written to me. Choosing not to do so does not make me a censor. I am not your publisher, nor am I the government. Here, I'm just one blogger out of bazillions.

I glad you chose to follow-up with the second post. Thanks!