That’s how I generally handle comments. And it has worked for more than two years.

I just put the phrase in quotes and attributed it to the other site for a little more clarification.

it’s a reference to a certain forum on a certain website where everyone is “Anonymous.” I think there was some television show that called them the internet hate machine and they think it’s hilarious.

Anyhow the reason i bring this up, is i physically cringed when i read it on your article and on the linked one. It’s hard to explain, it just seems ironic that the internet as a whole gets the phrase attributed to it as a whole when it was originally a poor journalistic turn of phrase regarding one relatively minor group.

You might notice i’m not naming names or linking, here.. that’s because rules one and two are “we don’t talk about the…” well, you see why.

Often, social media is poorly handled by the mainstream media. Look no further than our own Miami Herald. Their comments sections are a joke, moderated almost in a “when I feel like it” fashion. For example, for every “deport these animals” comment deleted, there’s ten that remain. And don’t get me started on Miami.com, which is a pitiful attempt to make an entertainment/nightlife site.

Now, the way I tend to do things in my neck of the woods, is that I let everything go, within the bounds of the law. Like, you’re more than welcome to post in a thread in my forum, and use all the racial slurs you want. I won’t delete them. We let the community sort you out.

It’s worked so far. We maintain a high standard of intelligence in our posts, and it shows. I haven’t had to ban anyone or delete a post (other than for technical reasons) since we started.

I think Kurt could learn a lesson or two in that respect. Don’t be petty, arbitrary, or vicious in moderating. Either do it “full time”, or trust your readers to sort it out for you.
pod´s last blog ..WMC 2009

Edible kitties aside, this guy abused his position of power and destroyed someones life – at least in the short term. And why? Because he doesn’t know how to roll his eyes at infantile frat boy jokes and can’t be bothered to find the delete button on the blogs admin interface?? How … infantile.

Now, the comments are closed all together.

How anyone can be that clueless about the internet would be astounding, but this is an old-school newspaper guy we’re talking about.
Michaelk42´s last blog ..Again with the cluelessness