April 16, 2006

Moderation isn't good enough.

Robert Scoble has decided to start moderating comments the wordpress way, which is of course his prerogative. I like what Toby at Diva Marketing says on her blog about the importance of honest feedback and fluid discussion between business and marketplace and why not moderating comments enables that process.

But then there's the reality: Robert is a sitting duck, a visible target for competitors and detractors with saddlebags full of ammunition. That has to get tiring. I get it. Still, he is also a hardhead sometimes. I can say that because I'm one too. Most bloggers are. It comes with having opinions.

That's why the current comment moderation systems won't work for someone like Robert who is 1)Triple-A-List and 2)Sitting Duck and 3)A vector for conversation within a CorpoGiant. We need more options for comment systems as blog conversations and roles become more complex.

Maybe the fact that Robert's a technology evangelist will spur some innovation on comment solutions--an under-served blog tool area for sure. We need an alternative to the Either-Or current structure of moderation. Either you're executed and buried, or your set free to speak. That doesn't work.

I'd like to see some kind of system where I have the say, but readers can overrule me if I'm being hardheaded. Maybe I could tag a comment as "troll" or "flaming asshole" but Shelley might come along and tag it as "valid point" or "shut up and listen for once." At which point I could tag her comment as "point taken," or "i'm right i'm right i'm right!"

Better alternatives for managing comments would help both blogger and reader -- we might all learn something -- and the conversation wouldn't suffer from the black hole of moderation.

AND as I said in comments on Toby's blog, I'm more worried about Robert's newfound interest in "The Four Agreements" and getting "unhappy people" out of his life. Nice try, but life doesn't wrap up that neatly. If I need to be continuously happy to be in someone's life, I'll bow out now, thanks.

Originally posted at BlogHer.

Tags: , , , = Powered by Qumana