Typepad (my blog hosting service) has provided new tools for moderating comments left on their sites. It is a welcomed development. Now all comments can be reviewed for content before being posted. This has already cut down dramatically on spam. It has also helped me from letting a few of those hateful comments degrading different religions or groups of people from slipping in.
A few people have been banned from this site for making such comments. But it is hard to actually ban people. They start posting under false names and change their IP addresses in an effort to slip through (even a conservative Catholic priest has used this dishonest and kind of obsessive tactic). What I don’t have is the time to track down who people are being dishonest with who they are. I do have the time, however, to review each individual post for content (since I read them all anyway) and that is the path I’ll be using from now on instead of trying to ban individuals.
The site will also now request that people who wish to comment to first create an account with TypeKey. This will help cut down further on spam comments.
So if you’ve been banned from this site in the past – and there are only about 12 of you out there – the ban is lifted and you’re welcome comment away but play nice.
