Monday 19 July 2010

A note on moderation

The more alert among you will have noticed that I have been moderating comments for the last few days. I have taken this step reluctantly because of one individual. This person, who lives in Hampshire, has a number of problems. Now I have no difficulty at all with people insulting me and disagreeing with me violently. However, this particular person has made some pretty sleazy comments about another home educator in Hampshire and these really were a bit much. I have deleted them. As far as I am able to make out, he wants to be served with a School Attendance Order by Hampshire County Council. I cannot help with this, but he is becoming increasingly aggressive about it. For example;

" I WANT TO SHIT ON A SCHOOL ATTENDANCE ORDER WEBB "


"I WANT TO SHIT ON ANY LETTERS FROM JIM LOL"

I can't really help with this at all. He also has an unhealthy interest in the possible sexual abuse of my daughter. For example:

" DID BADMAN TOUCH YOUR DAUGHTER? "

"DID ANY LA STAFF TOUCH YOUR DAUGHTER WHEN YOU LEFT HER ALONE IN YOUR HOUSE WITH THEM? "

There is also a fair bit of vulgar abuse like this;

"YOU AND YOUR DAUGHTER GOING TO EAT HORSE SHIT WEBB... "

"YOUR FULL OF CRAP WEBB LIKE YOUR DAUGHTER "

I let a few comments through today, just to give a flavour of this man's writing. So until I can install an application which will block his IP number, I'm afraid that I shall have to keep moderating all comments.

3 comments:

  1. I rather think that you have made the situation worse. When will you learn that posting personal attacks doesn't get people off your back? Moderation would have been a better solution all along.

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  2. I have tried moderation before and it has not stopped him. I have had to deal with sixty five comments in one day recently, many consisting of one word or phrase. As fast as I have deleted them, so he has posted more, most concerning his dispute with Hampshire County Council. His is a fascinating case and I felt that it was worth examining a little.

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  3. Incidentally Anonymous, this case has been plastered all over the Internet by the child's own parents. Many of the details are absurdly inaccurate. You seem to feel that correcting these constitutes a personal attack. This is a curious perspective. Are we too assume that any sort of nonsense may be posted on the Internet by home educators and any attempt to set the record straight will then be a personal attack? This seems to be a little one sided! After all, parents are quick enough to correct local authorities and government departments when they give out inaccurate information.Do those corrections too amount to personal attacks?

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