I moderate comments on this blog primarily to kill the evil sp*m monster (surely the Voldemort of blogging), but also because I’ve had a few trolls under my bridge. Mostly I moderate after the fact, and if you’ve successfully posted on FRL before and haven’t been banned (which only happened to one person, a creep who posted homophobic comments), you should expect to see your post appear immediately.
Comments that have a good chance of staying posted on Free Range Librarian have these characteristics:
* Interesting, even if inaccurate or poorly-argued
* Amusing, intentionally or otherwise
* Historically significant
* Pertinent to the discussion
* Generally rounding things out
* Concurring (or intelligently disagreeing) with previous posts
Responding with “Jane, you ignorant slut” is not an example of intelligent disagreement.
Comments that have a good chance of never seeing the light of day have these characteristics:
* Rude, particularly to friends and colleagues of the site author
* Intolerant, particularly if homophobic, racist, sexist, or just plain mean-spirited
Restoration to posting status may require apologies and/or promises to behave better in the future.
Posted on this day, other years:
- Stiffed Again - 2008
- Gorman on Bloggers - 2005
- iPods are imPure, Too - 2005
13 Comments
A clear, eloquent and forthright statement.
And a shame that it needs to be said.
Not a surprise [there are reasons I rarely comment at LISNews these days], but a shame.
good! I was wondering when that was coming.
“Censorious hypocrites.”
Nope. Plenty of people disagree with Karen on her blog. But they do it in a civil manner, so she welcomes them. You behaved badly. She threw you out of her house.
Geez. When did weblogs get so serious? I agree with Karen here (obviously), but why bother with guidelines? Karen, it’s your weblog. You do whatever you want to do with it. if you want to delete a comment, then delete a comment. No need to explain your motives. That’s what makes weblogs work. If someone disagrees with you, they can post to their own weblog.
Jack has reminded me of a phrase that commonly shows up on bulletin boards and listservs: “Please don’t feed the trolls.”
I think your guidelines are clear and based on common courtesy.
“New friends for coffee” is a brilliant way of putting it.
Over at my own blog the agenda is expressly political and I am regularily handed my head by bright, if misguided, commenters. Occupational hazard. And my choice. Just as banning Jack is Karen’s choice.
Jack, here’s a suggestion, if you really, really want to get into the assorted red herrings about brother sister and multiple marriages come over to my blog and have at it. But respect Karen’s unwillingness to have your comments here.
And do, please, drop the whole silly idea that this is about censorship or freedom of speech. There is no “gotcha” here. No one forces you to post here, no one denies you access to the literally hundreds of thousands of platforms the net provides for free expression.
It is not censorship to refuse to invite a rude dinner guest back the next time you have a dinner party. It is merely a recognition of that rudeness. It should be taken personally and the behaviour corrected.
How lucky can you be to have both Stephens and Saklad complaining? Back when I was an honest-to-god librarian, Saklad used to ask me for personal documents regularly and publicly excoriated me all over the place for not sending them to him. I got mail from all the best librarians in Boston with their good wishes. I love your guidelines. It’s your site. Run it as you damn please.
http://listserv.syr.edu/archives/foi-l.html
http://listserv.syr.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0405&L=foi-l&D=1&O=D&T=0&P=5581&F=P
Date: Mon, 31 May 2004 15:54:21 -0400
Reply-To: thomkeat at earthlink.net
Sender: State and Local Freedom of Information Issues
Sent-From: James Keat
Subject: Maryland open meetings
X-cc: Allen Dyer
Maryland Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr. has vetoed a bill, passed
virtually without opposition, that would have remedied an overlooked
defect in the 30-year-old open meetings statute.
He said it would open government agencies to increased litigation
— the only way the statute can be enforced.
However, lobbyists for local governments, which would be the
principal targets of such suits, did not oppose the bill with one
exception, representatives of local school boards.
The bill was designed to remedy a trial court decision last year
that dismissed an open meetings enforcement suit against a local
school board on the ground the plaintiff had no standing to sue.
If allowed to stand, this ruling would effectively eviscerate
enforcement of the statute by civic groups, the press and virtually
all other persons.
The statute permits persons “adversely affected” to sue for
compliance.
The judge decided that the plaintiff was not economically injured
by the asserted violations a! nd therefore lacked standing.
Because there was no case law on the point, the judge had to reach
into the zoning code for a precedent.
That ruling is on appeal.
The governor’s veto can be overturned by the legislature at its
next session, now scheduled for next January.
Additional information:
Editorial in Baltimore Sun:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/bal-ed.meetings28may28,0,344
8322.story?coll=bal-opinion-headlines
Opinion article in Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64695-2004May28.html
Briefs and other documents in law suit:
http://www.riverhill.org/unofficial/board/open/indxpldg.htm
Jim Keat
Maryland-Delaware-District of Columbia Press Association
— James Keat
— thomkeat at earthlink.net
http://listserv.syr.edu/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0405&L=foi-l&D=1&O=D&T=0&P=5581&F=P
http://listserv.syr.edu/archives/foi-l.html
Asking for public documents is a good thing. Our cities’ public libraries do not even disclose to our cities’ librarians, other library workers and cities’ library unions collective bargaining labor relations advocates the public documents needed to be more effective and efficient. Ask for our cities’ public libraries departments reports, studies and surveys! Persist in the face of nay sayers who respond the public information is not available. After all, they are our cities’ public libraries! The best librarians like Henry Scannell of Boston Public Library Microtext Department and John Devine of BPL Microtext Department are responsive to such inquiries
http://www.bpl.org/research/microtext/index.htm
Enjoyed your article “Beyond Algorithms” in the Jan issue of Google Newsletter, Karen - and share your mistrust of poor grammar and spelling in website content. Just to say that the French phrase re the Paris website should be “the original French is très bon” not bien - we all make mistakes!
I think your guidelines are fine. Hopefully it will save your time and educate more people on how to properly write blog comments.
PS - there are a few broken links in your second paragarph on the rules.
Dear Karen,
Thought you might enjoy my bookplate blog
Http://bookplatejunkie.blogspot.com
Lewis Jaffe Philadelphia Pa.
K.G.,
I’m posting this because as a writer and librarian you’ve got to know how hard it can be to work with publishers. My current novel (supsense/thriller, Death Game, published by independent press, Zumaya Publications) has been reprinted so it can be distributed by Ingram. This is the first book the publisher redid from their list and I just received it and the publisher’s logo is not on the spine in the new edition.
I’ve heard libraries and bookstores will not stock/shelve books w/o publisher’s logos on spines. You must know. Is that correct?
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The Official Rules
Although I haven’t had any problems with obnoxious comments posted to this site, I’m sure that someday I will. I’ve just come across Karen Schneider’s guidelines for comments on her blog, and I find that I could not have stated
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