Wednesday, October 28, 2020

Comments on comments

 As sort of a follow-up to yesterday, for the most part I try not to make this blog political.  Lately, of course, that hasn’t been the case.  The stakes are just too high, and quite frankly, it’s hard to ignore (try as we might).  

But that has had a ripple effect in the comments section.  Normally, I love comments.  You guys often have great insights.  And posting comments makes this blog feel more like a little community.  All that is good.

For the last couple of years I’ve had to moderate comments.  Several reasons for that.  First of course, is trolls.  Still not sure why they bother.  It takes them several minutes to compose and send and me literally one second to delete.  My solace is they must care what I say otherwise why would they keep coming back?  And they do.  So when I see a troll comment my only thought is, “wow, I must be popular.”  

But I have some other rules.  I don’t allow readers to attack each other.  I’m not going to call out anyone by name, but there are a couple of people who lately do it continuously.  I would hope that by rejecting their comments they would stop, but they don’t.  I would think that when I do post their comments that aren’t incendiary that would send a message as well.  It hasn’t so far.  

Bottom line:  Play nice kids.

I also delete a lot of political comments.  Now this may seem unfair since I occasionally post political essays.  But you’ll notice when it’s clearly a political post I disable comments for that day.   Here’s why, and remember — it’s MY blog.  For this I've been accused of "politically bullying" or being insecure -- okay, but on this one topic I'll take the hit.  We're not debating issues or different beliefs in how to improve the country and our lives.  We're talking good vs. evil. 

The comments section can turn ugly real fast.  That’s not the purpose of the feature.  And yes, I’ve deleted comments supporting Trump.  I’m under no obligation to be fair and balanced.  But I’ve also deleted anti-Trump comments, even though they support my position because I don’t want to start an ugly thread.  

If you want your voice heard when it comes to politics — VOTE.  

And other than politics and attacking each other I look forward to hear what you’ve got to say.