Wouldn’t you like to expose your newer readers to some of you earlier posts that they might never have seen? Or remind your long term followers of posts that they might not remember?
Each Friday I will publish a post I wrote on this exact date in a previous year.
How about you? Why don’t you reach back into your own archives and highlight a post that you wrote on this very date in a previous year? You can repost your Friday Flashback post on your blog and pingback to this post. Or you can just write a comment below with a link to the post you selected.
If you’ve been blogging for less than a year, go ahead and choose a post that you previously published on this day (the 22nd) of any month within the past year and link to that post in a comment.
This was originally posted on November 22, 2014 in my old, now defunct blog. It was a bit of a rant. Sorry about that.
Second Thoughts
The title of this post is probably a little misleading. I’m not really having second thoughts about anything in particular. Second thoughts imply a change of heart or opinion or resolve reached after considering something again. It might also mean having new doubts about someone or something. But don’t worry, I haven’t suddenly found religion or been having intimate conversations with God or Jesus.
No, this post is not about changing my mind or having doubts. What this is about is complaining (okay, whining) about bloggers who follow certain practices on their blogs. I realize that it’s not my place to tell anyone else how to run his or her blog. But I do have a few strong opinions about certain protocols some bloggers follow.
Awaiting moderation
When I make a comment on your posts, I don’t like to be told that my comment is awaiting moderation. I mean, seriously, what are you afraid of? If it’s spam you’re worried about, and if you blog on WordPress, Akismet should have you covered. Since I’ve been blogging on WordPress, Akismet has trapped more than 125,000 spam comments on my blog. That’s like half of a quarter million spam comments, for crissake. And if you’re worried that someone is going to post a comment that you or some of your readers might find inappropriate or offensive, then perhaps you should close your posts to comments. Problem solved.
I invite anyone and everyone, without moderation, to comment on my posts. No filtering, no deleting. Say what you wanna say and it will be there for everyone who reads and/or comments on my posts to see.
So this comment is awaiting moderation business — just cut it out.
Chronological order
What is going through your heads, people, when you choose to display the newest comments at the top of your posts’ comments sections and the older ones at the bottom? Showing comments in reverse chronological order makes no sense. The natural flow of any conversation is from start to finish, not from finish to start. When comments are displayed in chronological order, it’s easy to follow along with the conversation, to see the interactions, the reactions, the responses, and the replies in the order they were made.
This is especially true if someone posts a comment based upon an earlier comment that someone else posted. If the latter comment appears at the top of all the comments, how the hell are you going to know what that commenter was referring to?
So why would anyone want to have the newest comments first, rather than the oldest? If your blog is set up to show the newest comments at the top of your comments, you need to think about changing that. Please.
It’s none of my business
Well, I grant you that. It really isn’t my business. It’s your blog and if you want to moderate comments and/or display them in reverse chronological order, that’s your right and privilege. But in a way, it is my business because I find both practices to be quite annoying. And I don’t think I’m the only one who feels that way.
I’m not going to do something silly like add a poll here. But I do wish those of you who read this post would let us know what your thoughts are about comment moderation and about oldest first or newest first in the comments sections. And if you do state your preference or express your opinion, explain why you feel that way. Or not. It’s up to you.
But if you “like” this post and don’t comment, I will take that as an endorsement — nay, a mandate — that I’m right and that comment moderation and reverse chronological order for comments are both inherently evil practices.
This, That, and the Other 
You should post sometime about why you closed down your old blog, whether you told your followers, whether you told them about the new blog, etc. Unless you already did!
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On moderation, I take exactly the same as you. I’ve even overruled Akismet once and let through a very borderline comment. And yet, do you remember that post where I concluded that I’m not an absolute supporter of free speech?
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I have never deleted a comment…yet. I suppose if someone used excessive profanity or hate speech I might, but, fortunately, that hasn’t happened yet.
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The one I let through was foreign _non-European) language, but mentioned soccer teams like Real Madrid, with what looked like odds. But I let it through – I figured anyone who read it could decide for themselves.
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Thanks for the suggestion. I may just do that.
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This is a great idea, Fandango! I’m going to post something from the wayback machine too.
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I’m looking forward to reading it. Don’t forget to link to this post.
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Oh, did I forget to link? Oy!
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Can you try that link again or enter the URL. I got a page not found message when I tried it.
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Here is a post of a short poem I wrote and posted 8 years ago:
https://fireblossom-wordgarden.blogspot.com/2011/11/farm-five.html
I don’t moderate comments for new posts but I do for back posts and here is why: One night a spammer hit 100 of my back posts and I had to go in and find and delete them one at a time, so ever since then I moderate comments on posts older than a few days.
I am with you, though, on the comment order. Always oldest first, newest last!
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Thanks for participating in the Flashback. I would have commented on your post, but I still don’t know how to post a comment on Blogger if one doesn’t have a Google account.
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I would love to have the confidence to have open comments, but early on in blogging, I had a few scary people leave insulting comments. I just thought it best if I checked them before I approved them.
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I’m sorry that you had that experience. Maybe you should consider moderating the comments of first time commenters, but once you feel comfortable that they’re not assholes, let the comments go through. Or not. It’s your blog, your call.
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The order of comments is a no brainer to me. The awaiting moderation is, for this nearly absolute free speech advocate, a bit more problematic. I have it set (and I think WP did it, not I) strictly for first time commenters. I want my blog to be a free place, but also a civil place. I write a fair amount about politics, and I feel good about the few people who have told me they are comfortable expressing their views—diametrically opposed to mine—because they know I value civility. I have yet to veto a comment. However, two of my loyal respondents’ comments disappeared and wound up in spam—and the burden is then on them to connect to the Akismet folks and prove their validity. I think that’s a lousy system.
Here’s the link to the second part of what started as a two-part series on race in America. Part 4 returns to this super guy and quotes from a NY Times OpEd he wrote that broke my heart.
https://annieasksyou.com/2018/12/02/how-do-we-talk-about-race-in-america-meet-doug-glanville-part-2-of-2/
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I usually get one or two legit comments that Akismet sends to my spam folder. I approve them and let the blogger know.
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I do forget to check my spam folder. But the first time it happened, Akismet insisted the commenter contact them directly to ensure it didn’t happen again.
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I stopped following a blogger because my post was Awaiting Moderation all night long and I saw that people who posted after me were approved. It was a writing challenge and I wrote this cool story that I was proud of, but I had basically just started on WordPress and nobody knew me.
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Did you ever ask him why? Did he ever approve your comment?
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I use WordPress but evidently have a basic package as I have never had the Awaiting Moderation prompt. Guess it is a good thing not know how do do this well. Find enclosed my post from a year ago – could have been easily written today. LOL.
http://anitashope.com/2019/11/22/fandangos-friday-flashback-11-22-19/
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Mmm… peppermint candy canes.
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Yum
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By the way, my comment on your post is “awaiting moderation.” 😉
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Really, wow I need to fix that. I will see if I can figure out how. Thanks for letting me know.
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If you go to Settings and to Discussion and to Comments and you’ll find this:
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I think I fixed it. Hopefully.
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Good!
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Thansk for sharing your post. Just wanted to add that it seems your comments are in fact displayed in reverse chronological order. Is this for a reason (I’m sorry if I missed it)? I mean, I don’t want to be critical, but since you’re new to WordPress you might want to look into it. This setting is also under Settings > Discussion.
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I looked into it and did make an adjustment. Just hope it was the right one. Thanks for the comment and help.
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I agree 100% about both comment moderation and certainly about reverse chronological order. I used to have my old blog set to moderate new commenters’ first comment I think, but now it’s honestly mostly Akismet that flags nonspam comments from people outside of WordPress as spam. It’s a shame the WordPress app won’t let you check spam comments yet, so I have to go to the more inaccessible WordPress website to ch eck for real comments being put in spam.
As for offensive comments, I’ve had one person attempt to diagnose me in a very insulting way on my old blog. She more or less said I certainly have BPD and am making my multiplicity (DID) up and if I really had DID I’d be doing really crazy things etc. I let through her first comment but when she started more directly insulting me, I deleted her comments. I don’t mind people disagreeing with me but to personally attack me is another thing.
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