Archive for November 26th, 2006

Blog Housekeeping

Here’s a comment I posted yesterday which is probably worth a read. I posted it in relation to the recent banning of Loki, and subsequent protest from some contributors.

Let me put it this way…I’m at work for the majority of each weekday, while at work I do not have access to this website or to my personal email, I therefore have no way of monitoring comments.

When I do finally have a chance to check on the site, I tend to find a bunch of completely off-topic, near-defamatory comments…often against people who either read, or know people who read this website.

It’s fine for you…the chances of anyone ever finding out who you are and being able to take legal action against you for defamation is minimal…I on the other hand am responsible for what gets published here…I’m the one who will be facing a defamation lawsuit one of these days.

I don’t mind if people wander off-topic occasionally, I don’t mind if people criticise me…and I enjoy reading a lot of the comments, but I have to take some action to avoid defamatory comments, and repeated attacks on various contributors.

I can’t force every comment into the moderation queue because I would only be able to check it once or twice a day…and that would stifle any discussion, therefore I have to revoke the comment writing privilege of people abuse their privilege.

Loki is strongly suspected of being someone who has been banned multiple times.

I don’t guarantee to be consistent, and I reserve the right to change the rules as I see fit, and to not publish those rules.

I don’t care if I lose contributors because they don’t like my administration of my own website, in my view it’s good riddance. Just because some parts of the Internet are seen as “anything goes” areas, doesn’t mean that I have to run the same kind of website…you have your own website Captain Flume, and anybody can setup their own website if they don’t like the rules on this one.

Basically, if you don’t like it, go away and don’t come back.

I appreciate that some people don’t like my stance, but I see no good reason why I, as the person paying for this website, should have to let everyone else dictate what goes on…actually, no, it’s not that I just don’t see a good reason…there are no good reasons. It’s my site, and I shouldn’t have to justify my administrative decisions.

It seems that many people have this absurd idea that the every website on the Internet has to adhere to some golden rule of free speech (When I started blogging I thought that was a great idea, but it just doesn’t work on the Internet) and that if you block a comment for any reason then you are some facist censorship pig from the office of Mr. Stalin. I like the idea of free speech, really I do, but with free speech comes responsibility…unfortunately many people on the Internet seem to think that they can ditch their responsibilities by being more-or-less anonymous, such reckless actions ruin it for everyone else, and make what could be a good place for open discussions a place with anxious admins…and that in turn scares the contributors who become paranoid about saying something “wrong”.

I, as the administrator here, have responsibilities too…I have to ensure that you don’t break the law when you post here, I have to maintain certain standards, and I have to clean up the mess when someone ditches their own responsibilities…I don’t like that last role, but if I didn’t do it, no one else would, and the website would be a complete waste of time, not to mention be in all sorts of legal trouble.

I did consider having someone acting as a moderator, but I can’t rely on other people to make those decisions, especially when I’m not making any money out of this website (the Google Ads might pay USD$100 in another year or two…if I’m lucky) and wouldn’t really be able to pay them for their time.

My decision is final, that’s the way the website works, if you don’t like it then there is nothing stopping you from complaining about it elsewhere, or sending me an abusive email…maybe you’d like to complain about it in the comments of this post…that’s fine, but I am tired of the constant ridicule of people who aren’t related to articles, the constant off-topic inuendo, and the constant attacks between certain contributors.

I like debates, I’m more than happy for you to debate (on topic) things here, and I’m more than happy for the occasional off-topic foray, and the occasional textually violent disagreements between contributors which are bound to occur. But when it happens too often, it becomes stale, boring and painfully monotonous.

There are two bottom lines here:
1. Your ability to contribute to this blog with comments is a privilege, not a right, and that privilege is granted and denied by me.
2. My site, my rules…I’m fairly flexible most of the time, but I have my limits, and many people hear have me at near or beyond breaking point.

My job
Another point of housekeeping, recently there has been some discussion here about my new job…admittedly I handed out more information than I later wanted to, and subsequently withdrew that information and have remained very tight-lipped about my job. This has created an air of mystery, and a few rather curious individuals.

For various personal and professional reasons I do not wish to discuss my job here, nor do I wish to hand out any information about it. I would also appreciate it if there was no further speculation about it on this website. If you must speculate about it, please do so elsewhere.

Your cooperation is appreciated.

All comments relating to the above are welcome in the comments section below.

Samuel

18 comments November 26th, 2006 at 11:26pm

Samuel’s Musicians Of The Week

This week the award goes to The Fortunes, and the feature song is “You Captured My Heart”.

What am I supposed to do
to stay with you a while
You put ideas inside my head
you turned around and smiled at me and said
Well maybe someday
she’ll put out the fire

‘Cause you know that
You came, you saw, you captured my heart
You fought with love, you tore me apart
Now my life so it seems
Is lost in its dreams
What you gonna do ‘bout it
What you gonna do ‘bout it
You came and captured my heart

Come and let me talk to you
I’ll tell you what I feel
Maybe you could see a way
Life seems so unreal now you must see
Just what you’re doing to me
I’m filled with desire

‘Cause you know that
You came, you saw, you captured my heart
You fought with love, you tore me apart
Now my life so it seems
Is lost in its dreams
What you gonna do ‘bout it
What you gonna do ‘bout it
You came and captured my heart

say, well maybe someday
she’ll put out the fire

‘Cause you know that
You came, you saw, you captured my heart
You fought with love, you tore me apart
Now my life so it seems
Is lost in its dreams
What you gonna do ‘bout it
What you gonna do ‘bout it
(What you gonna do ‘bout it)
You came and captured my heart

‘Cause you know that
You came, you saw, you captured my heart
You fought with love, you tore me apart
Now my life so it seems
Is lost in its dreams
What you gonna do ‘bout it
What you gonna do ‘bout it
(What you gonna do ‘bout it)
You came and captured my heart

‘Cause you know that
You came, you saw, you captured my heart
You fought with love, you tore me apart
Now my life so it seems
Is lost in its dreams
What you gonna do ‘bout it
What you gonna do ‘bout it
You came and captured my heart

You came, you saw, you captured my heart

Samuel

November 26th, 2006 at 07:24pm


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