Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

On Moderation

20. June 2009 • Murph
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First, thanks so much for all the intelligent, insightful comments over the years. As has been noted in the past, AU wouldn’t be what it is without comments, and we try to take a light hand in policing them.

Recently, though, we have been receiving more questions and challenges about how we have addressed (or not addressed) certain comments. Bruce and Matt have spent an admirable amount of energy on trying to keep things functioning, but there comes a time when their efforts, and the discussion of their efforts, and the discussion of that discussion, takes up a little too much space, both on the website and on our e-mail list.

Consider this a reminder, and fair warning: we’re all volunteers here. We’re not the press, we’re not the government, we’re under no obligation to make every commenter happy, be “fair”, provide “free speech”, etc. If we remove a comment(s) it is because there has been a consensus on our email list. If we put a deleted comment back, same reason. If we close a thread, ditto. If we rewrite your comments into iambic pentameter, par for the course.

You can ask us to pull or put back a comment, or explain our actions, but you might not get a satisfactory response. Again, volunteers – limited energy. It’s not personal. But it is our website. If you want unmoderated nastiness in your comments, there’s always MLive, or you can start your own weblog.

In summary:

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