This is getting well past Stupid.
For a few months now, Commenters on our posts have been complaining that WE (or me) have been moderating their comments left on various posts that we put up. These fall into two categories:
- You’ve used a “naughty word” as decided upon by DISQUS. Even common parlance four-letter words and, lately, “words” like #FJB or phrases (“Let’s Go Brandon”) as if some SJW snit in their underground “fact-checker” cave decided to silence you.
- For no apparent reason at all. Full Stupid.
The first one I can understand – and to some degree (a slight one) we agree as I’ve always said that we are an Adult Theme But Kid Friendly site. Yes, I can be a bit of a prude but them’s the Rules. Yes, I’ve heard some of you in real life while you “created a speech comment” but that’s fine with me. How you speak for real is “you” and in real life, I’m not going to say anything. Here, it’s a bit different. Spammers get the permanent boot as well (and I thank you all for “flagging” such comments – I don’t have to go hunting for them).
The SECOND one, however, is driving me absolutely nuts – and from the emails and comments, we’re getting, you too!
There ARE times when someone has gone over the Trollish line and they get banned. I’m not going to allow anti-semitic language here and ESPECIALLY comments vowing or threatening violence (and that includes the old joke of “what do you think of a 1,000 lawyers at the bottom of the sea? A good start”).
However, there are a lot of comments that are starting to end up in DISQUS Moderation’s “time-out” (called PENDING) that I HAVE NO IDEA WHY THEY ARE THERE!!!! I look at one and go “ok, what’s ‘hidden’ in there that I’m not seeing?” and then I look again, and that irate look on MY face starts to show up.
I read it s-l-o-w-l-y in trying to figure out what is it that DISQUS is seeing that I’m not. Lately, the conclusion is that some DISQUS “comment checker” is bored and just wishes to waste my time and rile me up.
For example, I “approved” 11 comments yesterday because there was absolutely nothing wrong with them. It’s starting to really drive me nuts! No, not you folks – DISQUS as there’s absolutely no need for this. However, I’m hearing that it isn’t just on GraniteGrok that this “activity” is happening – other sites are reporting this as well. Even ‘Grok commenters have said that this is happening to them elsewhere.
So, this is where I get to apologize for this inanity. IF you know that you’ve left a comment somewhere on GraniteGrok and it doesn’t show up or that you’ve received a Moderation email from DISQUS, email me at Skip@GraniteGrok.com. I’ll try to get to it as soon as I can and rectify it (I may have to “slightly” edit it if its a “naughty word”) and then Approve it.
Also, time for a H/T (“Hat Tip”)! Moderating comments has been taking up more and MORE time. Several hours a day, in fact – one reason why I haven’t been posting at much.
It’s a rather good thing – our page traffic is going up and more of you are commenting – a lot more! I am thrilled that I am seeing “DISQUS handles” / names on comments that I’ve never seen before – many thanks for spending some time with GraniteGrok!
Unlike a lot of sites now, my aim is to keep the Comment Sections open. I actually have a great time watching where the conversations go and it’s fun to really see (and emphasis in REALLY!) how smart you folks are – I believe the comments are just as interesting and amusing as our Groksters’ posts are.
With all that said, please leave a comment for “Katie” – one of our readers that stepped up and offered to be our “first line” moderator.
The VAST majority of our comments are great, clean, and are no problem (moderation wise) at all. But some do come through that need to be dealt with. Katie will be looking for those, amidst the mountains of good comments, and then sending them to me to handle. A thankless job but I thank her for doing so.
So, like all the rest of us here at GraniteGrok, she’s become our newest volunteer. Once in a while, please leave a comment for her so she’ll know she’s looking out for you! We ran a test of our “system” yesterday so we should be good to go!
