THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.

Those of you who have been following Blogging Blue for a while know that sometimes comments around here can go beyond the pale. Some commenters are intentionally on moderation and new commenters are as well…until they prove their civility.

In the past my general feeling is every comment on one of my posts should be allowed and everyone should see the commenter for what they are. But sometimes even that gave me pause.

So a few months ago I decided to edit comments that I thought could be out of bounds…but didn’t feel that just deleting them was the appropriate action…so I have enlisted a common phrase that IBM made popular to identify pages in their manuals that were intended to be left blank.

So when you see THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK you know I pulled someone’s comment…

Share:

Related Articles

9 thoughts on “THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK.

  1. Ed, thanks for highlighting what’s been an ongoing problem here, though even I have to admit it seems to have gotten worse as of late.

    I don’t know if I’ve been too lax in regards to what kinds of comments I allow on the blog, but I’m loathe to disallow comments simply because I don’t like them. However, I find myself more and more frequently deleting or disapproving comments that are blatantly nothing more than attempts to troll, or comments that are simply beyond the pale.

    1. I resemble that remark and am willing to take note of it. Of the five or six regular visitors at most, (the names may change but the comments don’t) if it were my job, they’d automatically go to the spam folder, so-to-speak.

      Otherwise the exercise or exorcism of responding does force me to research what I present as facts and does help somewhat in prep for times when I am in discussion with real people face to face.

      But making a valid point with any of them will obviously never come as an admission from any of them.

      They do serve the purpose of being, at best, “useful idiots,” as foils in arguments to teach or link to facts that other progressive readers may not have heard of/thought of/learn from, which can help build social justice understanding and further stronger evaluation of, “lefty” policy and goals.

      1. While I don’t appreciate the tone of your comment, I do agree. When trying to understand a post, or shining the light of reality on it, many times I’ll have to do some research and even question my own views. Those studies trickle down through the comments. That, and comments are a better read when the authors disagree. If all the comments were just a litany of “amen”, they’d be a boring waste of time and could be replaced with a “Like” button.

        “But making a valid point with any of them will obviously never come as an admission from any of them. ”

        Really non? Tell us more, including the definition of “demonstrably false”. Heh.

        -Nemo, possible member of the gang of 5 or 6

        1. I was wondering which commentator might first feel a tinge of recognition as to my description above.

          As you’ve just introduced a new phrase into this thread, I’m guessing you want to enlighten us all about it, so have at it. My half hour lunch is nearly over.

          1. Sorry I missed the end of your lunch hour (I was spending a little bottom time in the lake). I didn’t plan on expounding on my comment anyway. I agreed with you and we should leave it at that. Hope you had a great lunch!

            -Nemo, possible member of the gang of 5 or 6

  2. On a national blog to which I was invited to their headquarters on two occasions to advise on major revisions, “name calling” (actual or implied by association) of fellow commenters was not tolerated followed by almost immediate deletion of his or her offending comment. Continuation of this offense resulted in banishment. I was in favor of this method although some commenters submitted their entry in pre-dawn hours evading deletion for several hours. Trolling and a successful changing or hijacking of the topic to the troll’s subject or purpose to disrupt usually resulted in a closing of the topic from further comment. I did not believe this was the best way to handle trolling. Instead, I would have preferred to issue a warning and if continued, ban the offender from further comments on the topic, or if a habitual troll, permanent banishment.

  3. Correction: my name was, is, and always will be “Duane12” on this blog. Somehow this aberration of identity, Duane12d, was used on one occasion due to a typo.

    Hey, the fingers aren’t what they used to be. It’s called the aging process ; slower, stiffer, silent. I’m at stage 2.

Comments are closed.