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Wednesday, December 10, 2014

The Grinches Are Out in Force

You would think that we could all get along out in here in the blogosphere. What is it about the holiday season that brings out the worst in some people? I have no tolerance for mean-spirited and condescending remarks left in the comment section on this blog at any time of the year, but I'm getting more than my fair share in the past four days than I have in the four years I've been writing on the blog. To alleviate this plague of harassment I've decided to turn on the Comment Approval function. Comments will appear when I have a chance to read them in advance and will probably take up to a day to appear now.  C'est la vie...

13 comments:

  1. The Mighty John floored by comments !

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    1. Hi Santosh - I always enjoy your feedback when we discuss books or media. But this seems to have become very unpleasant and personal. In the years I have been visiting Pretty Sinister Books I have learned a great deal and always found it to be a a very positive and pluralistic place. I can't imagine why anyone would want to allow negative personal comments on their blog - I most definitely would not. Happy holidays.

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  2. Plague of harassment ? Is that a hyperbole ?
    John, you may not approve of comments, but how will you avoid seeing and reading them ?

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    1. There's always the DELETE button. Happy holidays to you too, Santosh.

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    2. What I mean is that before deleting, you will have to see and read the comment to decide whether it should be deleted or not.
      I personally think that you are being unnecessarily over-sensitive.

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  3. John, comment approval makes sense. I used to get a few inane comments which the activated spam tool doesn't block but now they have stopped.

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  4. John, that's a bummer. Have you looked into simply blocking specific persons / words / URLs / and so forth? That's what I've done on mine on the rare occasions a troll has visited. Then it doesn't matter if they come back or not, I don't see or read the comment, I just empty the spam folder weekly.

    You have a wonderful blog, whomever is doing this should be ashamed.

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    1. Thanks, Richard. You have Wordpress blog, don't you? Wordpress accounts have a variety of smart controls you can select. Blogger has none of those options you listed above. I felt this was the best control. It's only temporary...I hope.

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  5. Yes, I have Wordpress. It's not perfect - why free blog software is? - but I do like the flexibility it affords.

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  6. Oops, should have been "what free blog software..."

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  7. John: I feel free to delete a comment if I do not think it is appropriate for my blog. It happens infrequently. Do what you think best.

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