Category Archives: Shrub.com Related

The blog was down for the better part of several hours. Actually, every one of my websites were down for the better part of several hours. Not very happy with that, but as things seem to be fixed I’m not … Continue reading →

Ever since I’ve gone to moderation, I’ve gotten a lot of flack for it. Hell, even before going to moderation, I got a lot of flack for my discussion rules. Especially by the very people who flagrantly broke them and only received a warning. Recently, my blog was criticized as being “like 1984″ with the implication that my discussion rules are in direct opposition to “open communication and free-thought.” All this said, of course, without knowing or caring about the history behind my choice to go moderated.

Do all of you honestly believe that the decision was made easy? That this is what I wanted from the start — having to wake up and pick and choose which comments can go through? I know this may be shocking, but it’s not my idea of fun to sit here and approve appropriate comments, delete the vicious attacks, nitpick the borderline comments, and then agonize whether my decision was wrong or not. I revise the rules as much as possible, to make it as clear as possible to me (and hopefully all of you) what will and will not make it through, but even then it’s hard for me to reject posts that deserve discussion because the person making them couldn’t be bothered to abide by all of the rules.

I’m going to talk about this once, and hopefully never again. I know it won’t stop the flames. It won’t stop the people out there who act all affronted that I’m somehow taking away their ability to have an “open discussion”. But maybe it’ll be something that I can look back on when these people make me feel bad, or for others to look at if they’re going through their own process of deciding what — if any — level of moderation is appropriate for their blogs.

Because, I’ll let you in on a secret. As much as having your comments moderated sucks, and moderating comments sucks, nothing sucks as bad as needing to moderate comments. And that’s something that I hope anyone who reads this post will understand. Continue reading →

Updated the discussion rules to reflect some new stuff. From now on, it’s explicitly against the rules to state stereotypes as facts. Please update yourself on the new rules before posting, as you will be expected to abide by the … Continue reading →

I’m going to be in Tokyo for the weekend, but Ariel has said that she’ll approve comments while I’m away. Assuming she can, please keep in mind that I haven’t found a way for them to be e-mailed to her … Continue reading →

The discussion rules have been updated to alert users to the moderated status of the blog, and a new point has been added. This point is about actually reading the post before commenting. Not that I think it’ll stop the … Continue reading →

Due to the insurgence of trolls who believe that they are above the rules that govern common decency, I’ve decided to put all comments to moderated. Especially because of the time difference, I’m not around enough to get my delete … Continue reading →

I upgraded WP and forgot to update my AuthImage code to match. Subsequently I’ve been getting spam. Lots of spam. I will update it soon, but I’m already late for meeting my friends to go to Nagoya, so I’ve turned … Continue reading →