I’m all for transparency on the blog, which is why I’m making this post. For years I’ve had the policy of not moderating comments. Moderation is a slippery slope, and not one I wanted to get involved with, because it involves a bit too much bias.
That being said, I guess it was never really fair of me to say that blog comments weren’t being moderated. I get about 5,000 spam comments per day which are automatically caught by WordPress and go straight into the spam folder, most of which involve Viagra, Cialis, Nigerian banks, and heirs to thrones.
So as many of you know (and pointed out over and over), there was a certain commenter on the blog that left hateful comments multiple times a day. I actually felt bad for the guy and thought they were so ridiculous that it didn’t bother me at all. But they were offensive to many, and at the end of the day detracted from the content of the blog because people chose to respond to him.
So I’ve decided to ban said person from posting, simply because his comments are “spam,” as far as I’m concerned. They have nothing to do with the blog posts but instead just focus on his hatred (or perhaps insecurities/self-denial), and I don’t think that’s in anyone’s best interest.
Anyway, my policy really hasn’t changed. I don’t moderate comments unless they’re spam. That’s the same thing I’ve been doing since this blog started. And as far as I’m concerned they’re spam if they have nothing to do with miles, points, travel, or the topics of the posts.
I’ll of course continue to accept hate mail targeted at me, disagreements, and the occasional love letter. 😉
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