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Deleting comments?

2003-03-29 21:20:14.793057+00 by Dan Lyke 10 comments

Okay, we've had a few spammers start to drop drivel in the posts. The most recent in Todd's flower picture. Is it time to start editing? Or do I need to find some sort of system to make sure that people are vested in the system before they start posting, maybe make their first post require moderation?

I guess it's this latest round of "blogs will change journalism" stuff that's bringing 'em out of the woodwork. Time to bring back Joel Furr and his "The Internet is full, go away!" shirts.

[ related topics: Dan's Life Flutterby Meta Todd Gemmell Journalism and Media Net Culture ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment made: 2003-03-30 00:26:11.561548+00 by: Dori

We've had the same crap show up in our comments. I delete the posts and ban the IP.

#Comment made: 2003-03-30 03:15:07.263711+00 by: TheSHAD0W

I vote for deletion as well.

#Comment made: 2003-03-30 08:09:34.165718+00 by: topspin

I'll weigh in for "termination with prejudice".... that is, delete the post, ban the address, and let someone like Chris (BOFH) spend a coupla meaningful moments with their IP.

#Comment made: 2003-03-30 09:59:37.097021+00 by: crasch

I agree with topspin.

#Comment made: 2003-03-30 15:50:25.201503+00 by: meuon

Eh Captain? Shall we pull alongside and give them a broadside? If scalywags they are, then should we become pirates and scuttle them? To bad they are using a borrowed ship and their own is hidden safe in harbour. I say "We throw out the trash" - but maybe we should validate who they are before we let them into our clear waters in the first place. Then, if they pollute our fair seas with their presence, we'll be justified in scuttling them, and be doing the rightous work of His Majesties Navy, or at least a sanctioned Privateer, instead of acting like rogue pirates. Eh Maties?

#Comment made: 2003-03-30 16:09:48.427696+00 by: anser

I would counsel against overreaction. These things tend to settle themselves.

Adding "Please try to stay on topic and be nice to your fellow flutterbians" in the comment form might be all you need.

#Comment made: 2003-03-30 16:28:44.558941+00 by: Dan Lyke

anser, that's been my take thus far, but it didn't work in the out of control thread (you know, the one about "freedom military victories"...) that has since had the "ignore" bit set, and of the other two which bother me, one looks like the ravings of someone who's committable, the other is just clearly obnoxious spam.

I don't want to recreate slashcode, for one thing I think their moderation system doesn't create good discussion, and I'd love to keep the system open.

I think I'm edging towards personal kill-files and maybe a "users who've been approved can approve new users" post queueing system. Or maybe we just ignore it and as the whole "weblogs are the new journalism" publicity dies down we get our corner of the web back.

#Comment made: 2003-03-30 18:09:56.645525+00 by: TC

Hmmm again in the minority but I rather like the idea of attracting new and interesting people. Here is a recent example of someone spaming a link but having an intellegent new commer respond. That being said I rather trust the resident editor/dictator of this regime(ok been watching too much war coverage). What about a kill bit in the threads that people can toggle. Where this is different than what your suggestion Dan is that the readers can basicly toggle between moderated and raw feeds. In flutterby's case I would expect them to be the same 99.9% of the time.

#Comment made: 2003-03-30 18:37:27.279032+00 by: TheSHAD0W

I don't think we're talking about the off-topic post; I think we're talking about actual spam. That meki.tk thingy.

#Comment made: 2003-03-30 20:40:57.025031+00 by: meuon

That's what I thought as well.. Idiot rants will die in and out.. as we touch on important topical issues. But we don't need unsolicited commercial postings (spam) Heck, I do enough of them as it is. My previous humour was intentional - but the idea of forcing the poster to check their email address given for their Flutterby password is an easy way to raise the bar of posting to Flutterby, yet allows first time posters automatically.