Masha wrote from Russia to say one of her recent comments had been held; she wanted to know if it was held for technical or political reasons. Let me assure you all that if your comment has been held, it's almost certainly something that the anti-spam software did. There's one troll these days whose stuff is always unpublished by me, but in most cases, if your stuff doesn't publish it's because the blog software flagged it.
And here's the thing: it doesn't notify me. The only way I know you haven't been published is if you tell me. You have to do so fairly quickly, though, because the spam bucket fills up in less than 24 hours, and your comments are irrecoverable if they've been sitting there after a certain point. Please e-mail me soon if your stuff doesn't publish (rdreher (at) dallasnews.com). I'm usually instantly findable during the work day at that address.
Anyway, I just wanted to apologize if your stuff hasn't been publishing. Yesterday, the spam filter caught one of my own comments, for no apparent reason. The only reason I knew it was because I got the "your comment has been held for approval" window. Otherwise, I wouldn't have known.
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Well, in that case, I wrote a comment to the 'drinking at 18' column last night, and it was held. I've been waiting for it to show up.
Rod, I doubt anyone blames you personally. When I asked the other day why mine was being "held for approval", it was solely to elicit information on the trigger word that caused the dirty deed by the human-programmed system. I.E., if we knew what words to avoid, we would.
Cleveland, you'd think it would work that way, don't you? Take it from one who has had the privilege of operating the smoke and levers behind the wizard's curtain, so to speak, when I tell you it seems frustratingly random. If there are "trigger words" etc. I doubt Rod knows them; I know nobody gave me a list! :)
But live links seem just about always to hold up a comment, as most people have figured out. Other than that, there's either some incredibly complex algorithm at work, or it really is as random as it seems.
Sometimes software workes out good, my comment was angry response to comboxer Watcher, now i m even happy it was not posted :)
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