Changing Commenting Policies Here

While I continue to maintain my policy of no moderation of comments, I have changed, after 2+ years of this blog being in existence, my policy of who is allowed to comment. It has become apparent to me why so many websites require you to register before commenting. While most anonymous comments have been civil and even if you disagree with me, you can say so, I have found that the anonymity of the internet allows anyone to abuse the commenting feature, to turn what would be a normal sensible comment either for or against my position, to one of unrelated ad-hominem attacks on me. I don't really care about this last part as long as you make a concerted effort to address the topic in the blog, irregardless if you agree with it or not. As long as you provide a sensible response, despite the position, I have no issue. What I have an issue with is people abusing the comments privilege and using it to just launch unrelated personal attacks without any type of objective support. If you disagree with something that I am saying, by all means engage the topic and put in your two cents and your supporting and buttressing thoughts. I won't delete you comment, as you can see by the many comments posted that have disagreed with me in one way or another. But I won't have cowards hiding behind anonymous accounts trolling around here looking to just post their non-sensical dribble. If you want to post a comment, have the stones to create an account and engage the topic at hand. The best way to persuade someone towards your position is to do it with facts and supporting evidence, not with childish name-calling and personal attacks. Thus, I am restricting commenting privileges to not allow anonymous comments. I suspect that this will cut down on the number of comments I receive, but I figure for the people who really have something worthwhile to say, they will make the effort to create accounts. At the same time, I will continue my policy of no moderation, which means that even existing unrelated anonymous comments will be kept, if for no other reason, to show why I have made this change in policy.

I Don't Understand Why People Moderate Blog Comments. I Don't.

I recently was reading an article about a recent executed inmate in the U.S., Kevin Watts. This guy was convicted of shooting three Korean restaurant workers in the States point blank in the head while they were kneeing down, in a robbery that obviously became much worse. Then he raped one of the deceased's wife. He was convicted pretty easily and sentenced to death. He was executed this week.

There is a blogger website called "Death Penalty News". These people are your typical anti-capital punishment group, but they spend their time highlighting cases in which criminals get executed. Now, capital punishment is not the topic of discussion here, and I've already put in my two cents on this issue a little while back, but what really irked me about the "Death Pentalty News" website is the fact that while they allow comments, the comments are moderated (which is OK, I guess), but moreover, they succinctly state that any pro-death penalty comments will not be posted. I posted a blurb there that will never be published, but at least they got my two cents.

That is a pretty sad state of affairs when a person or group will only give one side of an issue. Even if you have your own belief system or philosophy, wouldn't it be better to allow no comments at all rather than just allow comments that are in line with their position?

You'll never get that here. I not only welcome divergent comments (and I've received a number of them here) from people who don't agree with me, but I don't moderate them either. I would expect that people would remain civil and use some degree of written word decorum. Makes sense, since I doubt anyone wants to read an expletive-laced tirade. A different viewpoint is always welcome, as long as it is seriously put forth. If I moderated blog entries by sheer philosophical or political position, what you are getting is only what I allow through, which makes the credibility of this whole blog suspect. Sure, I am very opinionated, and sure, you may not agree with me, but I support your right to voice an opinion, and I won't censor you as a result. I think by allowing free speech to flow here, it helps encourage discussion and debate and allows the different sides to put forth their positions. Plus, if you take the time to respond to any of my postings, then the least I can do is afford you the chance to be heard, whether you agree with me or not.