While I’m not nearly as passionate as Scoble is being on the subject, I too rarely delete comments. In fact, the last time I deleted a comment was when I had a troll. Before that, it was when Ensight became the warzone for a massive blogger flamewar. Beyond those 2 events, I don’t remember deleting any comments.
It’s actually far more likely that the anti-spam technology I’ve built into Wordpress has caught a comment than that I’ve deleted it purposefully.
What comments am I comfortable deleting?
1. Spam
2. Illegal activities
3. Pornographic (though I’ve left some fairly graphic comments in the past)
4. Racist or discriminatory
At the end of the day I want the conversation to continue here. Any comments which fall into the above will make me want to delete them, but generally if they are actually part of the conversation I’m far more likely to leave them. There are roughly 1500 comments (out of 17,000) here that contain various swear words. About 50 of these refer to sexual acts. There are a dozen or so that are racist.
I value the conversation and the input and community we have here above almost all else. As Scoble said:
This is a true marketplace of ideas and there are some ideas here that are the metaphorical equivilent of rotting mushrooms. Be careful out there.
#1 by Patrick - May 7th, 2005 at 10:42
I don’t see anything wrong with it. After all, it is your site.
You have the right to enforce whatever rules you want and people can decide whether or not to visit.
I delete all comments that don’t meet my comment guidelines. In the end, I am trying to do two things. Preserve a certain atmosphere - one of respect - and make my blog friendly to people of all ages from all walks (no vulgarities, “sexual acts”, etc.).
#2 by Nathan - May 8th, 2005 at 19:47
I definitely hate bloggers who delete comments that disagree with them. Somehow that doesn’t quite jive with me.