Hi all, I am debating on setting up a political blog, and I know that I am going to step on some toes for some things I post. My question is, how forceful should I be regarding comments? I am wanting to implement a rule where personal attacks will be removed, but I want to know how well that works out there. Anyone have any suggestions?
Politics without personal attacks? Good luck with that. Nevertheless, limiting your community’s voice just a little irritates people quite a bit. Let the mud sling, delete the trolls, and let your community socially blacklist a-holes. If there is a serious discussion among the group quality posts are going to have a better impact then someone calling someone a name. just my 2 cents and good luck with the blog.
I run a political blog and I do not allow personal attacks unless they are based on verifiable facts, personal attacks and name calling just for the sake of attacking someone because you do not agree with them adds nothing to the topic being discussed and I delete or remove the offending portion of the comment right away. Politics brings out heated discusions which is great but I try to keep them on topic.
Personally I don’t agree with comment moderation and do not apply it on my blogs. I think people should have the right to express themselves freely. Only recently have I had some spam either than that only a few times was I forced to delete insulting comments. People like blogs because they’re free to comment and leave their opinion.
Is there a way, other than just trusting people's ability to mentally filter noise, to let the community deal with the problem? Also, if I do decide to do some moderation, I take it I should warn people who are getting out of line first. Should there be a post somewhere which outlines what, if anything, I'd moderate? Does someone have an example of something like this?