Comment moderation turned off again

For the last ten days, all comments that have been posted to A Limey In Bermuda have needed to be explicitly approved before appearing on the site. Now, however, comments will once again appear as soon as soon as you leave them.

I turned comment moderation on because I was becoming overwhelmed with large numbers of low-quality comments. Requiring pre-approval allowed me to reduce the volume and remove offensive or off-topic comments before they even appeared on the site. In some ways, it seemed to raise the quality of the discussion, and I was tempted to leave it in place permanently.

Nevertheless, comment moderation also reduces the dynamism of the conversations, and reduces my traffic figures too. So I'm now turning it back off.

If I again find myself become overwhelmed, or any thread starts to degenerate, I won't hesitate to turn it back on. But play nice and abide by both the spirit and the letter of the revised rules of engagement that I'll be posting shortly and hopefully I won't need to.

Comments

[loki on 27.10.05 at 19:45]

Phil, thanks.

I had become concerned by the comment moderation, as it stifled debate somewhat - ideas weren't being thrown back and forth to the same extent because the debate wasn't immediate. Anyway, I hope people play nice so that comment moderation doesn't need to be activated again.

[Uncle Elvis on 27.10.05 at 20:17]

I promise to behave... most of the time.

I'm glad it's back, too. I understand the need for it, as we discussed at Cock and Feather, (LOL, I mean Pickled Onion) but the flow felt... stifled?
I thikn we would have all got used to it. It would have just been different. Yes, I thikn the posts would have been, and HAVE been, more thought out, but, as you said, the conversation feel of it was getting lost.

Besides, my first article went up today. I want instant satisfaction when people laud me and bow down before my glory. *grin* (Just Keedeeng!)

[ace on 27.10.05 at 21:47]

Game on!