⇥ A note on comments on T·A·B

This blog doesn’t get a lot of comments, which suits me fine—I prefer quality of discussion over quantity of words.

However, comments are moderated and, inevitably, the following happens:

1. I publish a post (usually on PHP or OSS)
2. Someone leaves a comment
3. The comment is placed in the moderation queue
4. The author immediately posts another comment, which also ends up in the moderation queue, telling me off for moderating comments
5. Lather, rinse, repeat.

The reason why moderation is on is simply to weed out spam. Generally speaking, I let any comment through, regardless of whether they agree with what I say or not—if I only wanted people to agree with me, I wouldn’t allow comments to start with. In fact, the system is set so that, unless I decide otherwise, once a user’s first comment has been allowed, future comments will be published without any further moderation. Basically, I just want to make sure you’re not trying to sell me Viagra. And who knows, in twenty years I may change that rule, too.

So if you post a comment and it doesn’t immediately show up, please refrain from writing me and accusing me of trying to silence your Very Important Opinion™. I may be simply busy, on the phone, out, or maybe I’m just sitting on the can and need a little time to myself. Remember, my house, my rules. Thank you.