Dear friends,

First, a big thank you for all the comments and suggestions you have posted on this blog and sent to me by email.  This was such a huge volume of comments that I had to ask my assistant, Amarynth, to organize them into groups.  Then I read them all, alongside some emails I got and suggestions from members of my team. All in all, this has convinced me that we are doing pretty well and that was is needed is some minor tweaking and not gigantic reforms.

The first thing which I did was to update the rules of moderation.  You can see the updated list here: http://10.16.86.131/moderation-policy/.  Let me immediately admit that some the moderators were pretty lax in their interpretation and implementation of these rules.  I will ask them to stick a little closer to them in the future.

Second, everybody can have a bad day, so I would ask that moderators use, when needed, a simple warning but without the removal of the offending commentary.  This would particularly apply to off-topic comments (which should be posted in the Café).

Third, one idea which was suggested to me by many and which I like a lot is temporary bans.  These would be like a warning shot, showing that we mean business, but without permanent consequences.

Fourth, I am thinking of implementing a EZ-pass system in which trusted commentators who have made regular and high-quality comments and how strictly adhered the rules for a long time.  Their comments would allowed to bypass moderation and be posted immediately.  This would not be a right one could demand, but moderators could nominate candidates for that status while the final decision would be made by me.  Needless to say, this privilege could be revoked at any time.

All of the measures above would be aimed at helping and encouraging those who want to participate in our discussions.

There are also measures I want to take against two categories

  1. real, bona fide, trolls and paid propagandists
  2. stupid and/or narcissistic people

I am really sick and tired of both.  I will therefore ask that posts which clearly fall into one of the two categories above be reported to the moderators (maybe via a “report this comment” button) and by the moderators to me.  Frankly, I want to ban these characters as soon as they turn up and with no further waste of time on them.  Trolls and paid propagandists are not welcome here, and this blog is not aimed at people with low intelligence, sorry.  If you fall in either category, it is time to pack and leave.

That’s about it on my end.

Your turn now, what do you think of the above?

Kind regards and many thanks,

The Saker