A couple housekeeping items I wanted to keep people apprised of, what I am thinking in the comment section, as well as the latest bugs in blogger that had been keeping any new additions from being added to the Feait 212 BlogExchange.
Comment Section
First of all, I have been reading and re-reading all the comments and emails that were sent in regarding the comment section on the site. What does stick out the most, is that so many of you really do care about the comment section. It's rare to get so many emails and comments on a single subject, so the topic has been one that I have been considering carefully. To remove the comment section does a lot to negate any sense of community (for good and bad), so is definitely not the way to go.
Not only that, but the comments I have been reading have taken a few steps back from the severe over the last so many days since the article.
Here are the things that have been hitting my nerves when it comes to the comment section.
-personal attacks, name calling, etc. It doesn't really matter if someone deserves it or not, there is no reason for conversation to devolve into what was occurring.
-threats. We had several instances of real threats of physical violence towards other readers. I try and skim through the comment section and remove these quickly, but I can't always get to them in a timely manner. Threats, whether serious or not, are really unacceptable.
-having to delete comments. I don't like deleting or removing comments. The worst for me personally are when someone spends a lot of time and effort laying out their thoughts, and then ends it in slander against another reader. I can't edit out segments of a comment, and wiping out all that effort really just guts me. Or when a comment turns into a whole long run of negative replies and name calling. I have wiped out whole conversations because of that, which again often included those that were not part of the problem.
-accidental deletions. Yea, I have done it, as it really just takes a couple clicks and its gone. Especially when I am deleting other comments, I have removed comments several times over the years that were accidental.
So long story short. The comment sections have been looking a lot better. I am looking into other programs that will include better control over the comment section, but right now in the short term, I am going to leave them as is. Don't be surprised if I change it up in the next few months or so.
Also thank you to everyone who gave their input on the comment section. Its hard to reply to all the emails that came in on the subject, but I want everyone to know that I read all of them, and appreciate the responses.
Faeit 212 BlogExchange
There has been a recent bug lately with blogger that prevented the addition of any new sites to the Exchange. This has just been fixed by Google, so if you recently sent in your site to join the Exchange, I will start getting caught up here shortly. (There were quite a few new sites lining up to join).
