Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Changes

Apparently, some people haven't been taking the post I wrote on civility last week too seriously. It's getting harder and harder to have a real discussion in here, and that bothers me.

My asking nicely hasn't worked. So now there are two choices: comment moderation or user registration.

If comments are moderated, anonymous posting would remain but I'd have to approve each comment. Since I spend part of each day far, far away from the computer, comments may take as long as six, seven hours to appear.

If users are required to register, comments will not be moderated but you'll have to sign up for a Blogger account, if you don't have one already. This is amazingly easy to do.

Frankly, I prefer the second option. I have a new job which takes up a great deal of my time, and I'd rather spend the time I have writing posts instead of moderating comments. But, since all of you will be affected by this as well, I'll give you all the chance to weigh in. Vote in the poll below.


Which option would you rather see enabled?
Comment moderation
User registration
Something else (post in comments)
  
Free polls from Pollhost.com



I don't promise to abide by the decision, but I'll give your opinions all due consideration.

And, lastly, I really don't like doing this. But, after a long time of resisting it, I finally do feel it's necessary.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

How about no anon posting?

Genghis Conn said...

That's what the user registration is.

One thing about user registration is that I'll be able to turn word verification off.

ctblogger said...

No anon is long overdue (although I understand Genghis' viewpoint regarding posting anon).

The only reason I keep anon on my blog is because with haloscan, you can keep an eye on everyone via their IP addresses which makes it easy to hit someone on the wrist when they get out of line.

Genghis Conn said...

If we go to user registration, I do think we'll lose a few people, which is sad. But overall I think that things will improve around here.

And if it doesn't work, we'll try something else.

Anonymous said...

GC:

As I click on some of the user names posted on this thread, I see nothing "identfying" about them other than -- I'm guessing -- what they chose to provide on the Blogger form. I could, presumably, continue to use "ADA (N!R!) as my handle, and not have identifying info such as my e-mail address, etc., revealed, right?

Genghis Conn said...

Exactly. It's not intrusive at all, but allows for a consistent handle.

Genghis Conn said...

It is pretty sad, isn't it? Maybe once this is done, we can work on building a saner community.

Anonymous said...

I tried to set up bluecoat but it's already used according to Blogger. I don't know if I'll be back or as who either. Too bad the wackos from the left and the right tried to destroy this blog with their nonsense and I say that as someone who admits to sometimes crossing the line with a comment or two to make a point.

Anonymous said...

GC: Making people register would unfortunately limit the amount of debate in this forum. While there is a downside to anonymity, the upside is that some are willing to exchange good information only because of that comfort level that they recieve.

The upside clearly outweighs the downside. Although some comments lack decorum from time to time, this is still the best forum available. I would say, don't change a good thing.

Aldon Hynes said...

Random comments:

I do believe that User Registration is the way to go. However, I want to point out a few different things.

It won't guaranetee better discussions, registered users have posted some pretty obnoxious things here in the past, but it is a step in the right direction.

To a certain extent, what we really need is better sense community and a committment to encouraging intelligent discourse.

As annoying as word verification is, I wouldn't turn it off. There are a lot of registered spammers.

bluecoat: You can set up an account with whatever isn't already taken as a userid, and then set your display name to 'bluecoat' My userid isn't 'Aldon Hynes'. That is simply the name that gets displayed.

ronald reagan: I actually believe that making people register will significantly improve the amount of debate here. If you want real debate, you should be willing to at least register. As you will note from people like 'genghis conn', 'truebluect' or 'ctblogger', when you register, you don't have to use your real name.

My random thoughts for now. I do hope this will return comments on the blog to the level we've seen in the past.

Anonymous said...

GC: Real shame to weaken your forum by losing anonimity. That is where the attraction to this forum exists for people like me (however I am). Perhaps establishing a second string/blog for anon posters. Is anyone really that offended by the comments we've seen on here? Certainly not nearly as offensive as a email "bulk" box filled with advertisements for male enlargment! The nature of the topics and the posters (occupations) the success of this blog relies on requires anonimity. I might also add that while somewhat juvenille, some of it has been pretty funny. Robble Robble!

Anonymous said...

I gather to change this blog into one that can deal with un-civility will take money....can we have Rick Melita summa wrestle Lisa Moody for money for the upgrade?

Anonymous said...

I don't understand what the trouble would be with eliminating anon posting, because all you have to do is spend five minutes signing up - you'll still have all the anonymity you want. , you don't have to provide your real name.

Anonymous said...

Plane and simple the "terrorist" win when you give in like that. GC, you've done a admirable job at taking down brutally offensive commentary, and we've done a good job of letting you know its there.
Remove the ability to post anonymously, and the bad guys have achieved just what they hoped to.

Anonymous said...

Aldon Hynes (if that is in fact your real name) posted:
It won't guaranetee better discussions, registered users have posted some pretty obnoxious things here in the past,
And then said in the next breath:
ronald reagan: I actually believe that making people register will significantly improve the amount of debate here. If you want real debate, you should be willing to at least register.
Guess there is no topic on which Aldon doesn't want to have his cake and eat it too? He's voting against it before he votes for it. ;-)

Anonymous said...

dear senator kerry...most of us here know that Aldon is a gas bag and someone who is into policitcs for money...he whores himself to any race he can....and he has no experience in any winning campaign.

Anonymous said...

Dodd for President:

Bush lied....he has ruined this country and created another vietnam...yap,yap yap...

Let's see....Liberals are pis*ed at Lieberman for supporting the George Bush War. We know that Dodd supports Lieberman. So, does that mean Dodd indirectly supports Bush or is the war all of a sudden not such an important issue to Democrats? Which way do you want it?

Anonymous said...

Nice and easy to sign up... NOT

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Gabe said...

Anon 5:56 - I was wondering if you could post War and Peace? I would like to read it again, but I don't have time to go to the library...

GC - I am in favor of the use registration, if only so we all have consistent usernames. That said, I don't think it will do much to improve civility... Maybe another meet and greet?

Aldon Hynes said...

Again, the anonymous, and pseudonymous trolls illustrate their lack of reading comprehension and the reason that something should be done if this site is to have any relevancy.

The person posting as ‘Sen. Kerry of MA’ illustrates this lack of intelligence. If we were to only act upon things that are guaranteed, then we would be completely ineffective due to analysis paralysis. No, there are not guarantees in life. But that does not mean we should avoid pursuing the most prudent course. But perhaps this is a little bit too complicated an idea.

No, it is better to resort to juvenile personal attacks, the way Anon(5:36) prefers. Call me a gas bag. Yeah, that’s sophisticated. Maybe we can even add in jokes about flatulence. That promotes intelligent discussion. I must admit that when Rabelais did it in Gargantua and Pantagruel it was fairly funny, but that is just so sixteenth century.

Call me a whore. Insult me. That will make me look really bad and make you look really smart.

Genghis Conn said...

It's a small state. We should all get together at some point. How many can we cram into the counter at the Olympia Diner?

Anonymous said...

Aldon, if you take yourself any more seriously, or provide any more hyper-literatish references, you may implode. Get a sense of humor already. You contradicted yourself, it was funny. Take it from me, it is easy to trip oneself up when one is trying too hard to be clever.

Anonymous said...

Gabe: that anon5:56 could have emebedded a link but he must be a Republcan - an obnoxious one at that and maybe even a legislative aide.

Anonymous said...

Blueoat: I say annon 5:56 is a union state employee working nights. Probably bored and typed the whole thing out.