Not long ago I did a piece on commenting etiquette. It was fairly well received, picked up quite a bit of traffic and was cited around in several locations. But, I may have communicated a message I did not intend.
A lack of appropriate behavior on the part of a commenter my site does not give me absolution for content in the comments section. Again, the fact that I did not write the comment does not allow me to abdicate responsibility for the content of my site.
I have an obligation, a duty if you will, to control the quality of content published on my own site. It is misguided to publish comments that are inappropriate, inciting, or unnecessarily hurtful on my sites.
It is for this reason that I have the capability of moderating comments on my sites. If someone must make an evil or intentionally hurtful comment, let them do it on their own site.
Here are a few of the guidelines comments must meet to be published on my site.
- They must be free from profanity.
- They must be free from hate language attacking race.
- They must be free from language leading to religious persecution.
- They must not be hurtful and insulting for the sake of being hurtful and insulting.
This is not to say I eschew controversy. Differing opinions and perspectives are two of the things I value as the greatest caveats of web based publications.
Peace!
Reg Adkins writes on behavior and the human experience at (elementaltruths.blogspot.com).
