Monday, March 1, 2010

Rise and Shine --- Comments

Good Morning and welcome to a new week (and a full moon)!

For the last couple of years, we here at delcotimes.com have allowed readers to post comments on stories.
When it started, every comment was reviewed before it was posted. It became a daunting job (nearly a full-time job in itself) to read all the comments. Then, we went to an unmoderated forum. Everything was posted immediately.
As you can imagine, that only made things worse. Finally, we settled on the way things work now. You have to register with a real e-mail address, then you can post.
While most of those in the community use the comments to spur good conversation, there are those out there who just want to spew hate.
Either they think their comments are somehow funny or they need to feel superior, well, we'll never know.
When a story becomes a hot-button issue, it brings out all kinds. There are well thought out arguments (on both sides) about everything from earthquakes to health care to, most recently, teen suicide.
Unfortunately, when there is a big issue it also brings out the hate. For the past week, we've received nearly 40 'report abuse' notifications a day.
Now, we take every comment seriously. We want the conversation to flow.
What we don't want or need is racist or hurtful comments. Those will be gone immediately and the poster will be banned.
If you don't like it, so be it

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