It’s April 22nd here in Australia which means according to the SheThought.com blog (which incidentally I suggest you read), it’s time for me and all other self professed skeptics around the world to blog about blogging.

The topic I’ve decided to cover on blogging is comments, or more specifically spam.  Comments in themselves are a huge thing that most first time bloggers don’t usually realise will become such a drama, but it is something worth thinking about.  What kind of moderation will you put in place?  What automated systems?  How will you handle abusive comments?  Trolls (people who post purely to upset others)?  Fights?  Threats?

These are all things to think about, and on this blog here I have yet to actually decide on a policy myself despite this blog being well over a year old already.  I have full moderation turned on, meaning I have to approve every single comment.  I want it this way until I decide on a policy as I don’t want to be pulling comments that have already appeared.  I am also yet to refuse a comment submission with one exception.  That exception being, if it looked like spam. Continue reading →