Tag Archives: blogging

Mark Pack

How should you moderate blog comments?

By Mark Pack | Fri 23rd January 2009 - 12:10 pm

When I talk to elected politicians, trying to persuade them of the virtues of becoming a blogger, the two most common concerns are, “how much time will it take?” and “why do I want to do something that will attract lots of eccentric or rude comments?”

The first is absolutely a sensible question to think about – blogging well takes time and you should know what you’re getting yourself in to. The fears behind the second though are often exaggerated or misplaced. In part I think this is because some of the most high profile political blogs have a very relaxed attitude to allowing through all sorts of comments, but not every blog has to be like that.

Coming up with a sensible moderation policy for comments is a wise move: if you don’t yet have a blog, it can help reassure you that comments can play a useful role without the drawbacks you fear, and if you do have a blog, deciding what rules to follow will help make your moderation sensible and consistent – always a good idea, especially if you are making swift spur of the moment decisions late at night! (Getting it wrong can also result in a new blog getting off to a shaky start, as the fuss over Derek Draper’s moderation policies on LabourList demonstrates.)

So what should your moderation policy cover?

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Posted in Online politics | Also tagged and | 5 Comments
Alex Foster

Dr Pack gets third degree

By Alex Foster | Thu 15th January 2009 - 3:12 pm

I don’t mean he’s now even better qualified to run Lib Dem Voice, I mean the Voice’s own Mark Pack been answering some tough questions from Sunny Hundal at the Liberal Conspiracy.

Amongst the questions are these:

  • No doubt you get accused of being a party mouthpiece all the time, since you actually work for the party. How would you counter that accusation?
  • Isn’t focusing only on Libdem news unlikely to attract new members?
  • Do you think Libdembloggers aren’t cohesive enough? Do they not talk to each other enough?

You can read the full interview here – and maybe even answer the questions …

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Posted in Site news | Also tagged , , , and | 1 Comment
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