Blogjacking

I had to do something today I don't like to do, which is unpublish a comment.  Now, in the past, the only reason I've ever done this is when it was blatant commercial spam.  In this case, it was someone who seems to be frequenting this blog more and more, largely with the purpose of posting things related to a single personal issue that has been only tangentially related to the topic at hand.  Up until now, I'd let it slide.

In general, I'm going to let anybody say whatever they want here, regardless of how nutty.  Usually, as in the case of frequent pseudonymous commenter at Barry's and more recently here named Locomotive Breath, eventually the commenting becomes so self-contradictory until there's really no need for me to argue, much less delete the comment.  (LB's most recent one had me so in awe of its admissions that I still haven't managed to respond due to the shock.)  My general take is that so long as comments are not in violation of law, communicating threats, and are at least making a passing attempt at engagement in a discussion, it's far better to address them than to go about deleting -- even in cases where I couldn't possibly disagree more strenuously with the point being made.

However, there's comments of an entirely different sort, where the point becomes not engaging either me or other commenters in a conversation, but simply finding a place to drop whatever they happen to say, almost graffiti-like.  (Incidentally, this fits in more closely with the original definition of electronic "spam," which took its name from the Monty Python sketch where the Vikings singing "spam spam spam spam" over and over finally drowned out the conversation the waitress and her customers were trying to have (about spam).  Bloody Vikings...)  The most recent comment finally crossed this line, in my mind, and so it got deleted.  If you want a place to publish your own opinions or issues, get your own blog -- they're either free or very cheap, depending on where you decide to let it live.

On the other hand, if you want to complain about my editorial decisions, this post would be a fine place to do it.

ch

Comments

[Locomotive Breath]

Cop out.

[Michael Bacon]

Which bit? Not responding to you, or deleting a 700 line comment about users banned from Liestoppers on a post about baseball?

[barry]

I'm having spam, eggs, bacon, spam, and spam. I love spam!

[Tar Heelz]

Well could I have her spam instead of the baked beans then?