Before I explain, if you’re going to give me a free speech lecture or simply say “everyone is entitled to their opinion” I’d like to politely ask you to leave. Just click that little mouse of yours and find some other blogger to badger. I’ve heard all those speeches before. In my own head.
Click. Click. Click.
Is that everyone?
Click.
Okay. Good.
I shall begin.
I have a comment that has been sitting in my pending folder for over a month now. It’s been sitting there because I have no idea what to do with it.
It isn’t obscene.
It isn’t spam.
It isn’t self-promoting.
It is littered with grammatical and spelling errors.
It is mildly illiterate.
It is about an inflammatory subject that I wrote about a while ago.
And it is mildly controversial and something I might be tempted to waste my breath, I mean fingers, and type a response. To deaf ears (blind eyes?), presumably.
I haven’t “approved” it because I don’t want to invite ridicule. I then pat myself on the back for being so sensitive. But I know it’s really because I disagree with the comment and can’t believe there are such idiotic people out there. (How’s that for sensitivity?)
Which leads me to my question for all my favorite readers/bloggers out there.
How do YOU filter comments on your blog? Do you let any and everything sneak through? Do you only delete profanity/spam/self-promotion? Or do you kill anything that doesn’t agree with your point of view? Do you correct the misspellings and grammatical errors?
Really.
This inquiring mind wants to know.
Theycallmejane's Blog 
Boy, what a dilemma.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with filtering the comments on YOUR blog. I do it sometimes, too. I think in this case, I’d base it on the tone of my blog. Since mine (and yours, I think) are honest, open, and meant to be informative and fun, I think I’d decide whether the comment fits with that. If it’s just plain mean-spirited or nonsensical, then why bother to include it.
But bottom line: it’s YOUR blog. You get to decide what appears on it and what doesn’t.
I let anything that isn’t spam through even when someone said my flapjacks sucked. You can spell as badly as you like too, that’s your problem, not mine. Unless someone sends a second comment saying please adjust a typo etc. Then I delete that comment of course. I’d rather people don’t swear because that’s my standard in my space. I just say something neutral like ‘thank you for sharing your opinion’ or ‘that’s an interesting take’. Spam I let through if there’s no links or promotion but I set them to anonymous. Sometimes it’s funny, I get loads of acne comments on my hot water bottle cover. 😉 But I agree with Browsing the Atlas above, it’s your space. You choose. 🙂
I delete spam and any comment where someone’s being a Troll (eg: just flapping lips to get a rise out of me). Constructive criticism is fine by me, but I’m not letting any Trolls in my space. 🙂
I don’t blog nearly often enough to get much feedback…nor do I discuss controversial topics very often. However, if a comment is so riddled with grammatical & spelling errors to make it basically indecipherable, then yeah…I’d probably just delete it. If it only disagrees with me, then I’ll leave it since I don’t mind the debate/devil’s advocate/or even slight controversy. If it disagrees with me JUST to disagree…..well….I dunno. If they are rude about it (foul language, etc) then I may delete it. After all, you’re the owner of your blog & I’m the owner of mine. There’s no such thing as free speech in a setting like this. And I think that is perfectly alright.
Inviting me to leave before reading your post? Classic. That’s exclusively what I do. 🙂 And you didn’t direct your question at me (ha!) but I’ll take a shot at it anyway.
I think the answer depends on how you want your blog to be. Do you like it all neat and tidy? Or do you like flaming threads that scroll down 100+ posts. Because a lack of opinion tends to favor the former and no holds barred tends to favor the latter. Controversy and argument drives traffic. That’s the ultimate truth of the internet.
I religiously fight all spam because I don’t want to see bottom dwellers get ANY return on their efforts. When you partake of spam you provide encouragement for them to continue. Tilting at windmills no doubt but that’s how I see it.
I see comments as precious gifts IF they were entered by a real live human and in response to my post. (Not random.) If they might that criteria I’ll allow most anything to stand. I may be a court jester but I still venture into the hot button issues from time to time.
One last thing: The words of people who do not know me have no power to injure me. You can’t please everyone all the time. If someone criticizes me I’m still happy they chose to respond and I try to treat them the same as everyone else.
And, when time permits, I do correct obvious spelling and typographical errors. I do this only when I’m certain it will make the commenter look better. This can be tricky. Some things that look like errors may be intentional jokes that sailed easily over my head. 🙂
I think you should do whatever you are comfortable with. Delete is only one click away.
I think I’ve only deleted a comment once or twice. Once I know it was because it was really spam…just someone trying to promote their site.
I usually let people have their say, especially if I open up a controversial topic or write an opinion (my opinion) related post. But, I am ok with that. Some people are not.
If you’ve been saving the comment for so long, I would just delete it. At this point, it probably won’t matter to the author of the comment.
Best of luck to you!
~Fringegirl
I would publish it, but reserve the right to remove it at a later date if it led to a major debate that was fruitless. I’ve also been a jerk on my previous blog, where I let the one comment through, refuted it, and deleted any and all subsequent comments from that person. My blog, my rules 😉
Sure, publish it…no cause for alarm…..that’s my first thought. Then of course I have second thoughts. Which is precisely where you are now. I mostly let everything through that isn’t spam. And I have only corrected spelling once because it was a relative posting and I knew she knew better and it was just one word. Otherwise… I leave them alone, not that I get that many…because I don’t believe too much in changing other people’s words just to fit my way of thinking.
First of all, may I just say? I love your writing style, totally accessible and doesn’t take 10 hours to get to the point of the post. Re: comments, since I only have 7 followers (oh wait, I think it’s up to 8 as of last night!) the only deletable comments I get are spam (people selling stuff like Viagra or whatever) and that’s any easy one for me. If I ever did get a controversial comment, I’d probably approve it unless it was profanity-filled or hateful. I would love to see the comment of which you speak!
I don’t moderate my comments at all really. The only time I have ever edited a comment is when someone outed where I live in one. I am sure it was an honest mistake, but I had to edit it out to preserve my anonymity. Other than that, if the person is an idiot, I think that will shine through in their comment. I trust that most of my readers are discerning enough to pick up on the BS that some people post.
I think it depends what you want of your writing / your blog / your web presence. For the quiet life, magically ignore the potential trouble-makers. If you are ready to mix it up, publish and let the games begin. …Just be aware that there are those (trolls) who say controversial stuff just to get a rise (and oh how they do!) because they enjoy the game.
I don’t publish comments that make me uncomfortable. If someone is writing something nasty I just delete it. I want the Pad to be a positive pleasant place to visit. I get the odd nasty comment normally connected with me being transgender, and that’s why I have comment moderation on.
A most interesting question! Most of mine are written by regulars and they post automatically, so I’d have to take them off, which I’d be loathe to do. A couple of times, I’ve had comment written by friends that have made me wince. I am so cowardly that I usually just quickly write another post in hopes that no one will read it.
What do you do with the Likes? The photography blog that I do for my brother almost always has several Likes that hit almost the second I post it. Is it bad etiquette not to do the same or leave a comment on theirs, even if they write on subjects that are totally uninteresting to me? I mean, I ‘d bet they’re doing that on a zillion blogs just to bring attention to their own.