About the trolls

 

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There’s something of a troll problem in the comment discussions.    I think the BigGest offender has now finally been convinced to find another venue, but there will be more in the future who are bent on being disruptive.  

Short of moderating all comments before they’re published (meaning it may be hours before they become visible), the options are a bit limited in what we can do.  We have a few options but some trolls are persistent at getting around the obstacles.

One thing I wanted to make clear is that there is no opinion filter.  The whole spectrum of opinion is welcome here – and especially when commenters are representing a minority view (strongly religious, for example) I feel obligated to give them the benefit of the doubt.  What I am saying is, unpopular opinions are as welcome as popular opinions, but all comments must be somewhat civil. Commenters who are only disruptive will be asked to find a new venue. This last trouble-maker was ejected because he was trying to ruin the peace (and succeeding), not because he was religious.  Many people asking for his removal were in fact Christians who felt he was giving Christians a bad name with his ranting.

The question is what to do with the comments left behind.  It was argued that we should leave them in place to avoid any precedent of deleting comments.  This makes sense to me.

For those looking for a more structured discussion forum, the FSM Forums are available and run a much tighter ship.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions about the troll and for your patience.