Belmont Club

By Richard Fernandez

Bio

Get Updates From Richard Fernandez

Changes to comments

April 9, 2009 - 3:06 pm - by Richard Fernandez

In response to popular user demand, I’ve activated a WordPress feature that will enable users, for a limited time only, to edit their comments. You have five minutes after posting in which to use the feature, after which it becomes graven in stone. However, if problems are observed with this plug in, I’ll have to ditch it.

PJ Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:

1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.

2. Stay on topic.

3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.

4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.

5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.

These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that PJ Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. Please note that comments are reviewed by the editorial staff and may not be posted immediately. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pjmedia.com.

30 Comments, 30 Threads

  1. 1. twobyfour

    OK, here is a scenario….

    Say that I’ll post a link and the post would be tagged for moderation. Would changing it ( so the URL is palatable ) remove it from the moderation queue?

    Inquiring minds want to know.

    Post posto…
    A nice timer, BTW.

  2. 2. blert

    Thanks, with my spelling and punctuation…

    nuff said…

  3. 3. Zim

    This feeture wouldn’t bee necissary if peple would just be carryful typing their origonle post.
    …just sayying.

  4. 4. bob1

    The Lord never offered Moses such a deal.

  5. 5. bob1

    Moses never offered the Lord such a deal.

  6. 6. Charles

    Who shall I say sent me?

    Tell them I am who I am has sent you.

  7. 7. Tim

    How about using some sort of registration, perhaps using OPENID so we can use an existing account? Take a look at http://www.blackfive.net as an example.

  8. 8. bob1

    Post to them “I shall post as I shall post” has posted this.

  9. We can move to a registration model, but that will discourage the dropins and the lurkers. But seeing as how the vast bulk of comments are posted by perhaps fifty or so persons, that might not be a bad way to go. Moreover, I can fix it so that a newbie’s first comment goes into moderation, but thereafter he is allowed in unless otherwise denied.

  10. 10. Skookumchuk

    Sounds like a plan, W.

  11. 11. Eggplant

    wretchard said:

    “We can move to a registration model, but that will discourage the dropins and the lurkers. … I can fix it so that a newbie’s first comment goes into moderation, but thereafter he is allowed in unless otherwise denied.”

    There have been a few instances where a drive-by troll would drop a hot comment and commentators didn’t have sense enough to ignore it. However typically, the people here have been sophisticated enough to ignore trolls or obvious stupidity. I’ve often seen a lurker provide an interesting one-off comment. IMHO, the benefit from one-off lurker comments out weighs the harm caused from drive-by trolls.

    A more important thing to fix is the automatic moderation attracted by URLs. I appreciate that there are spam issues. Maybe require registration to avoid automatic moderation but nonregistration does not prohibit simple comments?

    The editing feature works (just barely).

    Re-editing also works but it keeps the CPU really busy. The Java script needs some work.

  12. 12. Zim

    Can we get a feature that allows me to scroll past Benj’s posts any faster?

  13. 13. winslow

    Popular demand? From the lurkers, trolls or regular commentators? I’m not sure you have a nail for this hammer.

  14. 14. Captain Ramen

    Instead of forcing a login, what about OpenID integration?

    Wow this is ajax-tastic!

  15. There has been much unseemly whining since the migration from blogspot.

    It should not be easy to post here. There should be hoops to jump through, and opportunities to exercise problem-solving skills and perseverence.

    That ought to keep the riff raff out when the next Russo-Georgian War starts.

  16. Given that a significant percentage of my posts consist of whining, moaning and b*tching about the interface, I must protest against this obvious attempt to stifle my voice.

    Help Help I’m being surpressed,

    Your old Club site was such an elegant labor of love. Did you do the coding for it or was it some other genius who deserves recognition? Thank you for this improvement.

    (stuffs thick list of missing features under the door)

    Voila, It Woiks!

    WordPress offers Registration and Open Id, I like the current name with email/URL optional system.

  17. A large portion of the mistakes people want to fix are forgetting a closing HTML tag. It would be nice if the application would call the commentator’s attention to the fact that a closing HTML tag is missing.

  18. 18. Doug

    How about a rainy day fund contribution to register?
    Said fund could be used to level out the cost of gas @ the pump,
    and during long periods of stable gas prices, could be used to build giant artificial CO2 scrubbing trees to
    Save the Whirled for the Children!
    Win-Win.

  19. Mike Sylwester
    Blogspot does that for me, surprised that feature is missing in WordPress. My top of the wish list is a notification when a new thread starts up. After that simple tools, blockquote, bold, italic, and url link.

    At least we have what is in effect a Preview, although if you try to delete it do you just get an empty Comment under your name?

  20. 20. Doug

    how to cheat in whirled.com

  21. 21. olde fogey

    As a regular lurker and bi-annual commentator, I don’t care what hoops you make me metaphorically jump though. It’s all worth it for this blog.

    Heck, I even read Benji’s stuff occasionally.

  22. 22. PA Cat

    Apropos of the edit feature–to misquote a certain Roman procurator, what I have written I have written.

  23. 23. Habu

    i knoe frm ne it well hepa grat deal bein i don doright by proff reed’in all time every time

  24. 24. Tony

    A lot of us ( will be so fascinated with reading our own beautiful words as a timer ticks down … we won’t be able to resist editing … like a long five minutes in the Confessional… it will cut down on both verbosity and vigorish, I’d wager.

    Don’t all of us have fun reading our words here on the walls of the Belmont Club… Now, with the added 5-minute chance to make them shine like diamonds….

    Yeah, this will be like safe sex or something.

  25. 25. markb

    I think it is intended to help rectify the the the type of problem.

    Either I left off the quotes intentionally or couldn’t find them on my mini-9.

  26. LifeOfTheMind (@19)
    My top of the wish list is a notification when a new thread starts up.

    Start using an RSS reader.

    en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format)

  27. I use Google’s RSS reader. I don’t know if it’s the best, but I love using it.

    google.com/intl/en/googlereader/tour.html

  28. 28. Utopia Parkway

    Well, this is a step in the right direction. Being able to edit comments is a normal requirement, especially since there’s no way to preview them, which would be a better way to go.

    I certainly hate the fact that URLs attract moderation, in some un-disclosed manner. Using captcha would be a better way. Registration would be fine. We had that on the old belmont club and worked fine. No matter what is done or not done it will cause some to not post and others to post more.

    Edit: because I can edit. The d*mn timer is still counting down, oh brother.

    FWIW, I’ve been inhibited from including URLs, which is stupid, since I had a couple posts sit in limbo for over 24 hrs each. Hummena hummena hummena, what do I say now?

    At any rate I don’t love this forum software.

  29. 29. Walt

    A short while ago I inadvertently posted some verse to the wrong post, clicked the Edit link, clicked on Cancel, repeated 3 times, still not canceled. As for proofing, I don’t write verse directly to the submit screen. I created a Belmont Club Word file I write to, giving me a chance to reread and edit before I paste it. Works for me.

  30. 30. Utopia Parkway

    Walt, I think Cancel means the exact opposite of what you think it means.

    Cancel in that context means ‘Don’t Edit’ What you want to do is Click to Edit, erase your comments or replace them with something innocuous, and then Save.

    I believe you can’t Cancel a post, but you now have five minutes to erase it.