And another thing…

You’re obviously right to consider the legal consequences of any comment.

But other than that, and obviously outright scatology, since the power of the blog is the variety, intelligence, intensity and controversality of the comment on it, I’d have thought the censor’s pencil should almost never be used.

I think you should just bite the bullet and either publish or delete.

Editing users comments is always tricky and you should simply ask him to republish, like you did with me when i suggested that various Labour MPs had been caught committing mortgage fraud…

Delete it Tom immediately. Can’t condone the idea of citizens being angry. It sends out the wrong message altogether.

Sounds like a fair compromise to me.

Although, I would point out that we’re all subjects, rather than citizens…

Although, I would point out that we’re all subjects, rather than citizens…

Nope, we’re citizens…read your passport or more importantly read the British Nationality Act 1981.

Everyone likes people to comment on their blogs, but if they a) are ignorant of the laws of libel or b) arent ignorant and think its ok to land you with legal responsibility for publishing their libels then you really don’t owe them anything at all… delete!

If you read every comment submitted, Tom, and decide which ones to approve, what do you need IntenseDebate for?

Good question. I was introduced to IntenseDebate when I trialled a new comments format a few weeks ago. It didn’t work as smoothly as I expected, but I’m thinking of giving it another go. If it doesn’t work again, I won’t need IntenseDebate at all and I’ll revert to approving everything through my Wordpress dashboard.

In ASDAs coffee shop then. My word you know how to live it up. You must be on some big money to live like this. We used to have to save up for weeks to go to Asda. Its part of Wal Mart you know. I am suprised a good Labour boy supports them. You should be going to the left leaning Sainsbury.

“IntenseDebate brings the value of insightful comments back into the light. No longer do you have to sort through an endless maze of sub-par comments and responses. IntenseDebate organizes your comments allowing your readers to express their opinions and thoughts. With IntenseDebate’s reputation system and comment voting, you’re able to quickly find the worthwhile comments and commenters, while cutting through all of the other nonsense.”

It may say everything you need to know about me, Tom, but I don’t think I’ve heard a more openly fascist statement. On second reading of the above quote, however, I see that they’re not actually deleting comments they feel are ’sub-par’, only ranking them. By what standards, though, do they establish this rank, and how many perfectly reasonable posts fall foul of it?

Unless sorting through comments is impacting on your work, and there’s no-one else around with an inkling of how conversation works around here to share the task, this ‘regionalisation’ of scrutiny sounds like a bad idea.

I’m sure there’s a mid-way point between, say, James St George or Guido, and the preposterous BBC comment websites.

This site more or less occupies it, I’d have thought.

But the idea of ranking comments is crude and abhorrent.

To be frank, i didn’t much like the new comments system and i was pretty glad when you reverted to the old one.

Ain’t broke, don’t fix.

I’d document that the comment exists, edit it tightly and invite the commenter to post the rest on their own blogspot site with a link.

There’s no shortage of platforms.

I only read short comments so the longer ones are a waste of space as far as I am concerned (unless, of course, written by me on airports and PR being my areas of interest).

“To be frank, i didn’t much like the new comments system and i was pretty glad when you reverted to the old one.”
Me too.

@ Ani

At last we agree on something!