Everything in Moderation. Including this Blog

Effective immediately, there will be no more unmoderated comments posted to this blog. Instead, I will be moderating it, painful as that is, and weeding out the stupidity.

To those who were hoping for an actual conversation about the day's tech events, I'm sorry. I've let this go too far, and I apologize for that. But it's going to change.

To the inmates that have run the asylum, enough. There are plenty of outlets for your childish, iCabal, and unacceptable comments elsewhere on the web. Have fun with that. Just do it somewhere else.

For those who have no idea what this means, here's the story: Before today, if you wanted to comment on a blog post here, all you had to do was sign up for the blog. Unfortunately, this led to a lot of off-topic and childish posts, flame wars, and the like. The blog has become a cesspool as a result and basically the opposite of what I was shooting for when it began. Now, no comments will be made available publicly until I OK them. This will be a time-consuming process thanks to the comically bad Community Server web tools I need to use. But I just can't let this continue, so I'm going to suck it up.

It's a new day. Expect some pain (and some slow comment approvals, at least at first). But expect it to be better on the other side as well.

Discuss this Article 44

argraphics
on Apr 11, 2010
I for one am down with that.....
roteague
on Apr 11, 2010
Great, THANK YOU!!!
resplendent
on Apr 11, 2010
Way overdue. Some people just can't be trusted not to troll.
runner7775
on Apr 11, 2010
Excellent! Paul, I'm sure that you could find someone here that would volunteer to handle some of the moderation, if that would even be possible.
Backup77
on Apr 11, 2010
Very well said Paul. Long overdue.
GoodThings2Life
on Apr 11, 2010
Thank you, Paul! Painful as it is, it's been a long time coming. I'm surprised you didn't sooner. I come here, because it's the one place I can come to find Microsoft-related news that doesn't immediately spin it into something trivial or uneventful. I agree with you on just about everything (except your dislike of Outlook, but we'll work on that, lol), and more importantly than agreement, your information is helpful. :)
tayme
on Apr 11, 2010
Thank you, Paul. I know that I have had a part in many of the flame wars here. For that I apologize. Here's to getting your stuff back to where it once was! Good luck with this! --tayme
war59312
on Apr 11, 2010
Was starting to wonder when this would happen. Smart move!
war59312
on Apr 11, 2010
Also, Paul when someone leaves a comment he/she gets: "Thanks for sharing your feedback! If your feedback doesn't appear right away, please be patient as it may take a few minutes to publish - or longer if the blogger is moderating comments." I'm sure you could easily change the message to: "Thanks for sharing your feedback! Your feedback will not appear right away, please be patient. It may take a few hours for your comment to appear as I am now moderating all comments on this blog." That makes it more clear. Thanks!
Rasken
on Apr 11, 2010
This is great news Paul. Kudos. It's a shame that you will be losing what should be productive time to moderation however hopefully the usual trolls will stop bothering to comment at all.
Roykirk
on Apr 11, 2010
Thanks, Paul. It was needed, though I'm sorry about the extra work for you. I was more annoyed by all the Pingback messages that cluttered up the place than the flame wars. I couldn't follow any discussion, reasonable or otherwise, with all that noise. I look forward to the changes.
MacLawyer
on Apr 11, 2010
Sorry you have extra work to do in this forum, Paul. Some people just went off on rants here.
jemme993
on Apr 11, 2010
Oh yes! Thank you thank you thank you! I was to the point where sometimes I avoided all the blogs on here just because I knew I'd end up reading the waves of trolling and flaming. Thank you, Paul!
Waethorn
on Apr 11, 2010
Good stuff! WinSupersite: Getting to the meat of Windows. Now with less fruit and vegetables. :)
whiplash55
on Apr 11, 2010
Good, I may have been guilty of off topic remarks in the past but I enjoy the blog, podcast and the Supersite posts so keeping it on topic is the least we can do.
rmansfield
on Apr 11, 2010
Thanks, Paul. I read every blog post, but quit reading the comments a very long time ago,
Ocean
on Apr 11, 2010
I think this will make one of my more favorite sites even better. I always hated the inter-personal stuff and the profanity. Just , please, don't let it mean that you'll blog less. I note that Ars Technica just lowered the boom on its commenting community too.
benjwah
on Apr 11, 2010
Wow, this is great news, I had stopped posting here for some time for just this reason. I will almost definitely be back posting a little bit more now, thanks Paul!
kenmcnamee
on Apr 11, 2010
Ok, I'm back then. The idiocy had gotten to be too much and I stopped commenting, or even reading the comments.
Ocean
on Apr 11, 2010
I do have one question about what the blog becomes now. The Windows Phone blog seems to be about a lot of question and answer interaction with you. Is that your view for this blog now, or will you allow on-topic posts that disagree with your point of view?
DarkSages
on Apr 11, 2010
Good call I had stop reading comments and posting because it was pointless. On another note you might want to port this over to a service where you can assign moderators. I like engadgets comments system where people can rankdown comments and it's really easy to report posts. Thanks for this site, your podcast, and your honest non bias opinion.
Ocean
on Apr 11, 2010
Darksages, There was a lot of talk about group-ranking of comments over on Ars recently---the consensus was that it doesn't work. The group downranks not just bad commenters, but unpopular viewpoints as well.
kent909
on Apr 11, 2010
I look forward to see what you choose to allow or not. I know at times I've been critical, but not what I would consider stupid.
ropp29
on Apr 11, 2010
Thanks, Paul! This is great news; I enjoy the troll-free commenting system over on the Windows Phone blog, and I'll be glad to see the trolls gone here.
mikegalos@msn.com
on Apr 11, 2010
It'll be fascinating to see this blog comment area evolve. Good luck with finding quick ways to deal with the tools and I can't wait to see what a Paul Blog actually looks like for a change!
subzerohitman721
on Apr 11, 2010
Paul, In one word, HALLELUJAH!!!!! It is more than time to weed out the raving trolls & lunatics running in the asylum. It's about time that finally some good old fashion law & order was restored. You've got a respectable site & it was ashamed that the lunatic fringe was running the show. So to all the raving fanboys & fangirls: Don't let the door hit ya where the good lord split ya. Paul, I'd love to see fellow Supersite commenters who represent the best of the breed as co-moderators. I totally agree with DarkSages there. Ken, good to have you back. I had to take time away from the Supersite to go where I can make comments & be respected at. I love the forums on Ars Technica, Phandroid, Android Central, & WinJade. Thanks for finally doing the right thing. I think I'll stick around & see where things go from here. I just hope you ban all those fools doing pointless ad homiem attacks, using profile names that make fun of other commenters, & those who are strictly trolling.
UnnDunn
on Apr 12, 2010
This is a long-overdue change, but I do hope Paul won't use this as an opportunity to squelch otherwise-useful discussion if it runs contrary to his particular slant on the news.
pmcgrath
on Apr 12, 2010
Thanks Paul. It’s a shame that it had to come to this. But while I don’t post often, I do read it daily and lately there have been a lot of immature trolls that seem to have taken residence here.
jecouch66
on Apr 12, 2010
I think it's unfortunate you have to do so, but I am glad you are taking this stand. I enjoy a lot of the comments here, but there were 3 posters whose only comments were basically "you're an idiot for using MS" and "Paul's an idiot period"; it really got old. It's one thing to disagree with someone, quite another to denigrate because you disagree. I say again - a welcome change in my opinion.
pthurrott
on Apr 12, 2010
So a lot of comments here, thanks. Some have raised a few issues around what types of posts will be allowed, etc. I'm not interested in censoring other opinions at all. If you disagree with anything I write, that's fine. Healthy debate is always appreciated. Just keep it civil. Speaking of which, even positive comments that amount to name calling are not, however, of interest. I realize there's a need to lash out at whatever trolls had set up residence here before, but we shouldn't be bothered with that kind of thing anymore, as I'll be cutting it off at the source. So no worries there, let's just move on. Again, civility is key. I'm also going to looking out for off-topic silliness. There's no need to link to a Mac article in a blog post about Xbox Live (or whatever). I'd like this to evolve into a conversation. Also, someone asked about whether I'd be posting more/less whatever. My hope and expectation is that as the Blog becomes something more useful to all of us, that I will blog more. I've been sort of surprised to discover over time that my interest in blogging here became lower, but I think that was because of the quality of the discourse. This is ultimately my fault, of course. And while I'll never be able to keep up with the blogging sweatshops out there, I'll do my best to stay on top of issues here that don't warrant news stories (which is what WinInfo is for) or full-length articles (SuperSite). I'm also blogging over at the Windows Phone Secrets blog, but that's for a book I'm writing and is ancillary to this. Soon, I will likely start up a "Windows 7 Troubleshooting Secrets" blog as well, again for a book, and again as something ancillary to my main writing efforts. So, in conclusion... Disagreements? OK. Civility? Required. Off-topic comments? I will just delete them. And I intend to blog more, and converse more with all of you. I guess that pretty much sums it up.
meason
on Apr 12, 2010
Thank you Paul, I guess this will also put an end to he ping back bots as well :)
teemark
on Apr 12, 2010
Thanks Paul. I was getting to the point of not even coming here because of the trolling stupidity, and I was completely loathe to leave a comment for the trolls to feed on. I remember hearing you say something on the podcast about cutting off comments altogether, my ears definitely perked up when I heard that. I'm glad you were able keep them open. Hopefully you can come up with a good system for moderating comments that doesn't eat up all your time.
Ocean
on Apr 12, 2010
The NYTimes ran an article yesterday that touched on this phenomena. Here is a quote that applies to this blog (and probably all of the internet): "a lot of comment boards turn into the equivalent of a barroom brawl, with most of the participants having blood-alcohol levels of 0.10 or higher,” he said. “People who might have something useful to say are less willing to participate in boards where the tomatoes are being thrown.” I also think this applies: "experience has shown that when users help rank things online, sites may have to guard against a concerted campaign by a small group of people voting one way and skewing the results. " http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/technology/12comments.html
yoshipod
on Apr 12, 2010
Sounds like a plan. I guess I wonder how far off-topic comments will be tolerated as the conversation evolves. While I can certainly see that way out there comments have no place, its not unreasonable for a blog about Microsoft Office for example, have comments that may compare it to Open Office, or something similar, which could then go on to talk about "cloud" vs. local storage for those apps.
joe-dokes
on Apr 12, 2010
Here's a question, when you post something that is 100% pure flame bait and we call you on it, are you going to post it? Are you going to post this? Clearly there were a couple of posters who simply posted to enrage people and they needed to be slapped, but I feel that urge to censor legitimate criticism might be too great. Regards Joe Dokes
pthurrott
on Apr 12, 2010
Joe, 100% pure flame bait? :) But seriously, I have no qualms about allowing legitimate criticism. My mind is wide open, no worries. Paul
aemarques
on Apr 12, 2010
Congrats from Portugal, Paul! Like others said before, this was long overdue and should contribute for a better blog. Antonio
lotsamystuff
on Apr 12, 2010
This should make things better all the way around. As Mr. Burns would say: "Eeeeexxxcelent".
vermonter@hotma...
on Apr 12, 2010
In my experience, there are two big problems with moderation: (1) It's a pain for the sysadmin; the more popular the site is (or becomes) the more comments will need approval. (2) It tends to kill off discussions before they really get going, due to the necessarily long period that often occurs between a posted comment and approval. Why not allow members to post at will, but "whitelist" the user base, IE, make the process of obtaining an account much more difficult and intrusive, and allow access only when you're sure it's not a troll? Oh, and ban the trolls when you see they've snuck back in. This makes for a heckuva lot less work for the sysadmin - you only have to approve original access and then police the users in the course of reading the blog - and allows for the kind of discussion pacing that should be the strength of this kind of thing.
abw1987
on Apr 12, 2010
Can't imagine how tedious this will be for you, but I think it's a smart move. I look forward to a heightened level of intelligence.
de Silentio
on Apr 12, 2010
Good call, Paul. While I enjoyed some of the flaming, most of it was annoying. On the other hand, it seems that I have no need to write my book "Windows SuperSite Secrets", as much of the book was geared toward the comments section. Didn't know about the book? Here's the original comment: http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2010/03/30/windows-...
joe-dokes
on Apr 12, 2010
Thanks. Joe Dokes
chuckb84
on Apr 12, 2010
Color me skeptical. It will be interesting to see if you apply the same rules to your own snarkiness. Will you continue to characterize anyone who advocates for Macs (in the same way that you do for Windows) as "Fanatics", foam-at-the-mouth crowd, zealots, etc. Will Mossberg continue to be Goatberg? Will Pogue always be referred to in derisory tones? Much of what you complain about is a direct response to the tone of your own posts, and you know that. Oh, things like "Apple's culture of lies finally dawns on a surprisingly unsuspecting world" or the 429 references to "apple fanatics"? So, first, if you want "healthy debate", clean up your own act. Even in the post announcing this change, we get a reference to the "iCabal". If you have the maturity and intellectual honesty, the comments here could discuss actual issues. Or, you can continue as you have in the past and reduce the "comments" to something like Limbaugh's dittoheads. Second, I've noticed that the blog "posts" are increasingly on innocuous topics, while the one-sided critiques of Apple are insulated in "articles". If you really want a discussion, allow comments on everything. Or leave it the way it is, so the comments that aren't inncuous will be "off topic" and deletable. In practice, I think the Mac advocates will be treated roughly like Colmes on the Hannity show. I very much doubt that you have any interest in real debate on anything like reasonable terms. However, if you are: Use the tone and demeanor that you use with Leo, not the imitation of Dvorak crossed with bitter petulance that characterizes so many of your blog posts.
pthurrott
on Apr 12, 2010
Calwell, Well, that explains why you're here, I guess. :) I'm sorry you see lack of interest, arrogance, and negativity. But my goal here is to turn the blog into what it should be, not what it was. I'm not sure what the comment about replies by me is about. And I've been traveling all day today, not hanging over the comment section like an expectant father. But I will say this. Community Server makes it hard if not impossible to have a meaningful conversation because my replies are not inline with the original comment. I will see if there's a way around this, but until we replace this with a more modern system (supposedly in the works), I'm stuck with what we have. Which includes you, apparently. So we'll make the best of it. Paul

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