Let me once again warn ye who post on this site that for some reason, the comments software is being irritable these days, and holding an unusual number of comments, for inexplicable reasons. In almost every case, nobody is holding your comments consciously, or for political reasons. I don't even know that they're being held unless you tell me. Victor just e-mailed to tell me one of his comments about Russia was held. I went straightaway into the spam bucket to turn it loose ... and found a comment there from Heather.
The bona fide spam comes fast and furious at this site, so if you are told that your comment is being held once you post it, you'd better let me know (e-mail: rdreher (at) dallasnews.com). If you wait long at all, it will be so far down the spam line as to be irrecoverable. Unfortunately, I don't check my News account after work hours, so you're out of luck if you post at night and get your entry held.
As a general rule, I will unpublish your post -- and may not let you post for a time, or ever -- if you resort to calling me or anybody else on this board names. I may or may not like it in each instance, but you are free to say that John Q. Politician is a bottom-feeding moron. You are not free to say that I, or anybody else who posts here, is a bottom-feeding moron. I do that not to protect my or anybody's ego, but because I think that's a reasonable line to draw to allow a robust discussion without letting this forum turn into an insult-contest.
Again: if your post is being held, you mustn't assume that the software tells me that. It doesn't. You have to. Sorry, but we live in a fallen world.
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Rod -
Since this is a low-intensity thread about blog housekeeping, perhaps this is a chance to ask something that's been on my mind: Any chance of updating some of your links to other blogs? Amy Welborn closed "Open Book" over a year ago (even though the site is still accessible) and now writes a different blog at a different web address, and I think Daniel Larison also has a new web address.
I think many entries are held because of the links in them. I've decided to copy any entries with links to the clipboard before posting, and if they fail to paste them back in and unlink them.
Dear members,
If you have comments being held by spambot, please do not keep submitting them over and over. You are encouraging spambot to believe it is really capturing spam. Don't feed spambot!
Please email the community mailbox: community@staff.beliefnet.com
If you put the name of the blog in the subject line, I will see it faster and I'll check the Spam file for this blog, find the comments, and release them asap. We do check every evening, but I really don't mind looking earlier or more often.
And yes, links (particularly embedded ones) can make spambot salivate. Pavlovian response, perhaps?
And if it makes you feel any better, I HAVE found Mr Dreher's comments, as well as mine, held in the spam file. O_o
Thanks!
Beliefnet_Tiger
Community Monitor
not moderator :-)
Beliefnet.com
UPDATE:
Since I was in the system anyway, I checked. As of 6pm EST all held comments (there were two) have been released (out of nearly 200 pieces of spam - a very light day for this blog).
FYI: If you wish to use Anonymous as a username, please type it out. We do get quite a bit of spam that shows up this way; however, it looks different when typed or not.
[Anonymous] - not typed
Anonymous - typed
I'm less likely to miss it if it's typed.
Thanks!
Beliefnet_Tiger
stimulating and informative, but would be suffering with something more on this topic?
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