The Process of Moderating Comments

One of the quickest ways to generate comments to a blog is to post something related to a topic that has controversy attached to it, say for example red light cameras. With the receipt of those comments comes a responsibility for us to moderate them before they are published. So what gets published and what gets ignored?

Comments that are critical of something I say here or the basic message being delivered will be accepted as long as they are not obscene, profane, slanderous, threatening, or generally offensive to the community's morals and values. That is a broad range of no-nos, but it can be summed up by saying anything that is respectful to different opinions or perspectives of others will most often be accepted and published. Comments that advertise a commercial business will also be ignored.

Anything else that argues against a point being made in a post will get accepted and published, regardless of the degree of inaccuracy or erroneous content in the comment. Our role is not to correct point by point or counter-argue predictions of what will come in the future. I don't mind entering some spirited debate on issues, but my other duties preclude me from being a fact-checker for the content of every comment we receive. Readers need to understand this when digesting the comments of someone and not assume everything contained in comments is accurate or factual.

So please keep the comments coming our way. We will continue to moderate them and willingly publish those that my be contrary to our position on a topic but yet are beneficial to the public discussion we hope to generate here.

Thanks to everyone who takes the time to read our blog and offer commentary along the way.

- Asst Chief Bill LePere

Comments

[Lorrie]

I recommend blogs to clients because it enables them to yet another method of communicating with their customers. Keeping in mind that communication is a two-way street, I think your method of addressing all comments is commendable, and a practice other businesses would do well to follow.