Moderate blog comments per the hotel’s request?

You never can make up the rules in advance. You will always start thinking about it differently when it comes along. One I would make is that names should never be written out here when dealing with bad stuff. Ask yourself if you feel comfortable what with you are doing now and if you are prepared to live with the possible concequences because of your actions. Imagine you having a bad day at work (professional behaviour yes or no), then getting such a comment on a blog attached with your name. Given the current climate in the US (assuming that it where the review was from) I would as a blog author pay extra attention and be aware of my responsibility against "normal people who have no clue and their search results on the internet". I probably would have erased those names right when the comment arrived and commented in the blog that names where removed and added that to my comment policy. Your blog is a permanent record on the net. I assume at some point somebody is going to sue somebody because working for a company did not have "being blackmailed on the internet" in the job description. Ben, you also might want to check in with the lawyers of the FFN network or your own. By now you have been informed of this thing and cannot claim you did not know. I would assume that the FFN T&C state that you are freeing them of responsibility when being sued. Reality check for everybody who wants their name to stay there: What _benefit_ does it provide to you or the general public that these people now have such a comment on the net attached to their names? Do you go a around and google the employees first before entering into a hotel? Now you don't. Even if you read the comments with the names you would attribute the general attitude to the hotel and act toward the hotel. If I would see such a comment regarding sexual orientation and the website offered me the chance "is this helpful" I would mark it as no and inapropriate. I see so many homophobic rants from the US that it looks like a witch hunt sometimes. Leaving names in your comments, searchable for the world makes you, the admin of that blog, part of that. Just because this is the internet does not mean that 'anything goes'. As I said in the beginning - you decide what will be happening here. I would take this as the point to either clarify that comments will be edited because of naming people or that you will not edit them. After you spoke to your lawyer. :)

Ben, my two cents: this is your blog and you either allow or not certain comments. As you've mentioned in the past you've deleted some comments that you found inappropriate. If you didn't consider the comments in question of that nature then they are not. You set the tone. As for editing comments for me it's a no, no... that is then a disrespect to the poster and your readers.

Do not become "politically correct". All falsehoods or illegalities should be moderated but what is factual should remain unedited. It is what it is! Name names by all means.

I think it's clear what brought the Director of Rooms at the hotel here. A simple Google search of her name and the hotel brand shows the comment in question as the second search result. She is clearly more concerned about the negative interaction discussed in the comment than the references to the perceived sexual orientation of the employees. For this reason, I don't think you should edit the comment.

I don't think you want to spend all your time as a moderator of comments. If a comment is off topic such as spam, or clearly hate speech from a relatively narrow definition, then delete it. Regarding a request from a property mentioned in a comment, it may be OK to redact the names of specific employees. Regarding comments on sexual orientation, I do not think it is appropriate but there is a broad concept of 1st amendment free speech so use your own criteria on when it becomes hate speech. Its your blog, if someone doesn't like your own standard they can start their own blog.