If something of yours doesn’t post for 24 hours, bring it to our attention so we can pull it out of trash. Otherwise, it will just sit there.
Sometimes people want to trash their stuff because they realize they submitted something by accident. That’s fine, but we don’t know why it’s there because other stuff just ends up there by accident.
So if you want to trash something you’ve written, delete all your words, THEN hit the trash button. We’ll see it and realize what you’ve done, and get rid of it.
Take Out Trash ? of evil drum beat from liberal media denigrating our President Trump ?? 24/7 !
Take Out Trash of that toxicity + America can enjoy our President’s patriotism surrounded in love + respect!
Take Out Trash of Eastern Orthodoxy’s wolves in sheep’s clothing; we know who they are, the unworthy Hierarchs getting away with abominations of the sexual sphere, the financial sphere, the attempted distorting of tenets of Orthodoxy’s sphere
George,
What is the your policy for comment approval? I know I tend to stir the pot, and a couple of my posts didn’t get approved. I assume that they were either off topic or too aggressive.
Do you basically approve everything from regular commenters so long as it’s nothing profane, or are there guidelines?
In terms of guidelines, reviewing the following might be helpful: https://www.monomakhos.com/et-tu-brute/
We do NOT approve everything. If you criticize another commentator’s person, e.g. “Your so full of S#$%, your eyes are brown,” “You are a lier”, “You are ____ (fill in the blank)”, anything pejorative, we won’t publish it for two reasons: (1) No one cares what someone else thinks of another person and it makes for boring reading and (2) it invites retaliation and before you know it, the blog is hijacked by two people trading insults. It’s like seeing your parents fight. Again, NO ONE likes it and we lose readers. In the past, some have been quite verbose in their responses and have disclosed things that border on doxing, which is also not allowed.
We delete slanderous things that are said about regular people because the blog could be liable. You can say anything you want about a public figure, but you can’t say it about someone who is not in the public eye. For example, you can’t say Fr. X is gay, because that could hurt his reputation. You can say, “It was reported in the Washington Post, Fr. X is a homosexual, and I think . . .” but you have to be careful about that, too. It’s a judgement call on our part and they are not easy to make.
By way of process, I bring potential infractions to George’s attention. (We do not always agree, BTW.) In the end, it’s George’s call what goes through. He works so his time is limited. That’s why you may not see a questionable comment go through right away.
It goes without saying, this is our blog. We retain the right to post or edit whatever we want once you give it to us. With comments, we won’t change your words, but if most of what you’re saying is allowed and you include some snippet about a person that could likely turn into trouble, we’ll leave the offending remark out and put . . . in its place so the rest of what your saying can go through. Most people are grateful we do this because when they cool down they regret saying the offending remark. Some people, however, complain about it, but again, this is our blog and this is the way we do things. We don’t want people afraid to comment here because someone might go after them if they disagree.
What we DO want is an exchange of ideas and you can be as aggressive as you want, as long as you don’t go after the person.
Once in awhile, we’ll make a story out of a comment that is so good, we don’t want it to be missed. We did that with Mother of Five. I edit these pieces as I do George’s, by putting in commas or making paragraphs out of key thoughts so they stand out. My sole interest with the editing is to make it look good, knowing it was submitted as a comment and people, by nature, don’t put as much effort into a comment, as they would into a feature story. We, of course, always give credit to the person who submitted it and if changes are made, they are very slight.
George edits, too. He edits all my stuff. He is more incline to add rather than take away from a story. It is not unusual for us to write stories together, where you’re seeing paragraphs of his and paragraphs of mine! I keep wondering when one of you is going to call us out on this.
Sometimes we write about the stuff that you all submit. Again, we will give credit for passing on the story, but we will write it differently, because at that point it is coming from us and not from you. We were criticized once for not using the exact words someone submitted, but we would feel weird about doing that since we are writing our take on the story and it would not be fair to attribute our characterizations to you.
Hope that helps. George may have some things he wants to add, as well.
Okay thanks.