Thoughts on Comment Moderation

For the first six months of my blogging career, I did not moderate comments. I decided that if someone, anyone, had something to say, I would permit them to say it. Then in September I switched from bi-daily to multi-daily posts, and I began to attract the attention of a certain someone whose only lot in life is to hurl low quality epitaphs, who along with his birds of feather wallpaper blog comment sections. That eventually inspired the inception of comment moderation.  You can't believe some of the craziest of the comments I have deleted, in fact I should have been writing them down and collecting them. I have never had a death threat, but I have several death wishes.

I confess that when I started moderating, the presence of the loons had me at a heightened state of alert with an overly itchy rejection trigger finger. I have rejected some comments that in hindsight I should have approved because I missed an opportunity for myself and my guests to refute Liberal talking points. Many of the Tory commentors are magnificent at addressing left wing talking points, and I point to Wilson as the alpha sheep dog. I think any Blogging Tory would readily praise Wilson as their most valued contributor. I appreciate the contribution that all of you make, and none of you should be the least bit offended by my declaration of the Wilson Supremacy. I feel as though I owe Wilson at least a round of golf for her contribution increasing the quality of my site.  If Wilson ever stopped visiting, I would react similarly to Tom Hanks towards the end of Cast Away.  Though as a contributor, I liken her more to the neighbour in Home Improvement.  Always peering over the fence with the right words of wisdom at the perfect moment in time.

Once upon a time I asked the question:

Who leaves the most enlightening and entertaining comments on the Iceman's Blog?

Wilson (34%)
Marx-A-Million (18%)
Dodo can Spell (12%)
Hinchey's Store (9%)
Bec (7%)
Patrick Ross (5%)

The last time I saw Marx-A-Million, he was lobbying Starbucks for employment, and Dodo and I have issues over Sarah Palin, but the rest of you have been up to the task of responding to my increased acceptance of Liberal talking points, and for that I salute all of you. I thank you for contributing to the narrative, and I think that your post-piece commentaries increase the quality of my website. I have made a concerned effort to approve more opposing opinion, and I certainly appreciate a little help from my friends. Libertarian and Conservative values are sometimes at odds, but united we stand and divided we fall. Just think of the Libertarian pundits as defending the left flank of the Conservative Party. The low blows, insane statements, and arguments on what the definition of is is are more likely to be moderated. Though I did recently approved a fact check by Cherniak.

In other news, I decided to test drive a new feature by creating my own Amazon Store. It is a basket of books, movies, albums, and other consumer products that I either own, would like to own, or used to own. All products that I personally endorse on a secure site, and if you purchase one of them I earn a commission for the sale. If you are looking for gift ideas, you can visit the Iceman's Store. The more revenue that I can generate through my site, the more time I can afford to spend dedicated to content. Since my content is free, this is a way for people who enjoy my site to pay it forward. I am averaging over 1,000 clicks per day, so I am assuming that I am creating something people want to read. I was doing roughly 300 clicks a day in September. Though by my best estimate, 28% of my visitors hate me.

I do tend to drop a comment when I read something by a fellow Blogging Tory.  Since I appreciate people leaving comments on my site, I try to do likewise when I read the work of a colleague.

"I get by with a little help from my friends..."

Thank you