I have continued to look into how to manage moderation on this blog.
To do so, I looked at data on the number of comments over the last year.
They have, in total, been 358,000 published comments on this blog over a period of 20 years, but 20% of all traffic in this blog's 20-year history occurred last year, meaning there were likely around 71,000 comments here last year.
Some comments are, of course, quite short, which is most especially true of mine, on average, except when I need to comment at length, which I felt the need to do quite often.
However, even with the new 400-word comment limit, many approach that length and even if I assume that the average comment is only of 50 words, which is likely to be an under estimate, this means that there were in total 3.5 million words posted as comments on this blog last year, all of which I read, and some of which I write.
On average, non-fiction books in the UK are around 70,000 words.
That means that there were at least 50 books' worth of comments on this blog last year, and I responded to a fair number of them, which takes longer than reading them.
It is this that has become the issue that I now need to manage. The growth in blog traffic is what has created the problem that now needs to be addressed.
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
There are links to this blog's glossary in the above post that explain technical terms used in it. Follow them for more explanations.
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Buy me a coffee!
Easy solution is dip in about and don’t read or reply to most of them. Comments can be made to the forum and not to you and the forum can converse with each other if needed. Get one of your kids to moderate for toxic stuff. There you go fatigue is sorted.
I do not have kids. I am not a goat. And I do have employees.
Halve or quarter the maximum length? 200 or 100 words is enough for most comments rather than small essays. I know I break it myself sometimes. Sorry.
Including this parenthesis, this comment was 35.
It is an idea, but it changes debate.
200 word limit?
Th discussion here is 100 right now.
I understand the problem.
But the “stickiness” of this blog is, I suspect, in no small measure because of your personal moderation.
I often find that others’ comments echo my thoughts or add more that I find helpful, then I just ‘like’ those comments.
At other times, I comment, and sometimes, that is not very novel, just a need to express myself. I will try to be more moderate.
Anywhere comments are allowed, moderation is needed. Can you delegate any of this? Could you limit comments on video posts to the video, so some of this lively, thoughtful and informed debate is available to viewers who may not read your blog?
The number of posts and comments have increased which is a sign of the success of the blog. I see you quoted more often these days in social media. But I have thought for some time it will be not be sustainable with all your other projects.
I know I often post twice, or even more, and think I should, like Cromwell, issue a self denying ordnance. ( When MPs were not to take command positions in the Parliamentary army ) Though, of course, he didn’t follow it himself.
You need to pace yourself and I feel we should accept your judgement.
Richard, you will sort things out in your own way. Your work is VIP.
Thanks
For me as a reader of your blog, my experience is that your posts seem to fall into two categories.
1. Current Affairs
2. The economic system
Yes they are both linked and affect each other.
Number 2. I feel I am reading to educate myself about the system as a whole, how it works, how its affects our daily life, the critic of it and what could be changed, etc.
Number 1. Is an ongoing discussion, that never stands still, is reactionary, which is very interesting, but personally to me, number 1 posts I am always drawn too.
I don’t know if this helps in your moderation? What is your main goal when interacting with posts from us readers? Is it to focus on 1. Or 2. It’s probably both.
Could you colour code you posts into “categories” or start the title of a post with, CURRENT AFFAIRS: war in the middle east affects on stock markets. Etc
Year’s agO, I did this. It felt like a waste of time. I gave it up and no one said a word.
Many of the comments are simply agreeing with you, and of course it’s good to see them. But might it possible for those of us who comment to uptick the blog post to indicate agreement, and reserve posting comments for when they have a question to ask, or feel there is something new to add to or amplify the point?
That might reduce the workload for you.
possible for those of us who comment to uptick the blog post to indicate agreement,
100%. I’ve often wondered why this feature isn’t available
There are some commentators who might be givien a v.i.p status to comment more than others as they’re contributions are worthy of more debate. Us lesser mortals will be happy to keep our comments to a minimum and still gain from the content.
I realise that this suggestion will not be popular, but a solution is needed, and I suspect urgently.
You will undoubtedly have an idea of how many comments can be handled each day, and what that means for the viable rate at which moderation can take place.
I wonder if moderation happens up to that rate and excess comments just don’t get moderated and posted. There might be an automatic reply to the commenters email address to say that the comment won’t be posted. (Some trustworthy commenters might be given a ‘free pass’, but I can see that creating different problems. )
Variations on this theme (which may well be dynamic) may well provide a more acceptable solution both to you and your readers.
Having asked my friendly AI, it seems that just won’t do the job that I believe moderators actually do. So that left cutting the number moderated or increasing moderator effort – hence my suggestion.
I wish you well in finding a solution.
You missed the point of moderation which is in large part to ensure that nothing which is lifeless, offensive or abusive of other commentators gets posted here. Providing a free pass is the exact opposite of what is needed, except for those who have proven their reliability. Thanks.
Instead of the “notify me..”box below,put in a tick box where the commenter needs an explanation , ask a question or to post a disagreement,mainly one for the trolls !
Only feel a need to comment on these and peruse any others when you have time.
Please don’t bother to publish my comment on Helen Heenan’s sensible suggestion as I forgot you do have a like button. Sorry
What about pre-vetting by setting up a (free) register to comment ?
We are looking at this. And mmembership for proven commentators.
I am a member of a football forum which is well moderated (molineuxmix). Their approach is to have 3 moderators, new users are pre-moderated for their first 10 posts and any regular user can flag any post for potential moderation. If a poster has broken the terms they are either banned for good or banned for a period. Once the period is over they are pre-moderated for a number of posts. Perhaps this is something to consider?
Thank you, Steve. Can you tell me what platform that is on? This sort of thing is easy with Facebook but there is some residence to use that here which is a problem because I think it would provide a perfect solution for what we need. If you have something else which works just as well it would be good to know what it is.