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Are negative comments being culled?

  1. ujwala
    Member

    I wrote a comment on the "Custom CSS" topic and since I had a hit from there went to see the newer comments and to my surprise I found mine missing! And then I went to CoComment which i use and noticed that another was missing too (i dont know if there are others and am not spending more time checking). surprisingly both had been negative re the price. it doesnt seem right just deleting those that dont agree does it?

    i put below mine and the other comment here
    i think that it the price is a bit steep. It would certainly be nicer to pay 15 for a bunch of additional stuff for the power user. i for one prefer the "free" service and I guess I'll have to live without customisable CSS.

    szopa
    Hum, I have ambivalent feelings for the whole idea of paid upgrades. On the one hand, it's great that it is possible to make some money on Open Source software. On the other hand, I think WordPress may (on the long term) loose because of it. Just look at gmail -- their service is great and for free, and now have become some sort of standard -- many people treat their gmail adress similarly as their home address, passport number, etc. I think that if only some of the functionality gmail provides was for free this would never be possible.

    Also, $15 is quite a lot of money in some parts of the world... In Poland you could even afford to host your page for a year...

    I have chosen wordpress, because it's the most convenient blog system I have seen on the web (really!). However, if most of the cool features became paid, I would consider migrating somewhere else. :(

    (If that happens, will you guys at least allow putting a for goodbye? ;-)

    I dont know if there are others that are missing you should check if you want to know.

  2. poppy8sd
    Member

    Funny you should post this. I wrote a comment on CSS very shortly after Matt wrote about it. I clicked "post" --but it never appeared. I moved on. Just now: I wrote again. It didn't appear either. I came to Forum to see if something is wrong with MY system.... If you couldn't post a negative comment: I wonder if you are right, they are being deleted? Quite odd....

  3. cornell
    Member

    Are you referring to commenting in the forum or on the announcements that the wp.com team make every so often?

    Comments on the announcements are always moderated and it's quite possible that negative comments are just not being approved.

    I have chosen wordpress, because it's the most convenient blog system I have seen on the web (really!). However, if most of the cool features became paid, I would consider migrating somewhere else. :(

    I believe (truly!) that there will be the free wordpress.com blog features that we have now. I cannot believe that the .com team would remove features that we have now just to make money from them. I also think that wordpress.com is a great platform. All the time that I have the facilities I have right now I will have a blog here. If it becomes paid service only then I'm outta here. I have other self hosted blogs and only use wp.com because it's convenient.

    What hasn't been mentioned yet is whether the free wp.com blogs will get new features at all or if every new feature that is developed will be a paid feature only.

    Collin

  4. azure3d
    Member

    Hmmmmmmmmmm!

  5. poppy8sd
    Member

    ~cornell
    I wrote on the Comments page, of the CSS for payment announcement, and on 'pay for what else' announcement. I didn't know they were moderated. That means: comments can be slanted, to create...a certain impression. That's hard to believe, that they would do that; edit negative comments.... Not sure that I believe they do that.

  6. drmike
    Member

    Um, folks. Comments on the main WP.com blog are moderated. They don't show up right away. We have the same option on our own blogs to do the same.

  7. ujwala
    Member

    what would be the basis for moderation - no negative comments? i agree with poppy8sd - it creates an impression which is not true or representative of the wordpress.com users.

    i love wordpress.com but am not for the paid features. might as well say it here where it isnt getting deleted :D

  8. cornell
    Member

    Moderation = Extra spam control. Yes, possibly negative comment moderation.

    Why not? Everybody has the ability to do it in their own blog.

    For Example:

    I go to Ujwala's blog and leave a random comment that they don't like. Do they kill it or do they leave it?

    Of course, it's up to Ujwala. Why shouldn't the wp.com main blog be the same?

  9. poppy8sd
    Member

    Why not cornell? Because: The Ability to kill comments is not the same as 'killing' opinions they don't want to hear. We're NOT debating OTHERS ability/right/option to do that, we're discussing the WHY --of the WP techs --who are asking the questions. The question was asked: "what do you think of us charging for things" "what else do you want to pay for." I'm not on the planet to fit into other people's boxes. I Answered the questions MY WAY. I posed: It's not believable that non 'lap dog' answers are deleted or not posted, yet my comments have not appeared. So, as I said earlier, I came here to see if some thing was wrong with my system.

    Cornell: are you aware you come off extremely sarcastic/snotty/half snarky? If not: let me be the first to inform you. You are so snotty, in all kinds of Posts/answers, I'm close to permanetly ignoring you.

  10. timethief
    Member

    IMO it's appropriate for admin to moderate these comments. IMO admin certainly ought to have the option of removing profane, frivolous, blatantly insulting, spammish and/or off topic comments that are not addressing the point.

    However, it's extremely *BAD FORM* to ask for comments in response to a new innovation and/or idea and delete comments that are not supportive and yet do not fall into the foregoing categories. In fact if it frequently used it will undermine any trust bloggers have in the administration. Why? Because it amounts to deception.

    If broad spectrum comment deletion is going to be the status quo then I would strongly suggest that admin remove the chorus of *tweety birds* who say nothing more than words to the effect of "yes" and "you rock" to every post Matt makes. When I read these "tweety bird" songs that truly lack any substance such as saying exactly what you like about whatever has been introduced, how it has been or is likely to be useful to you, and in what way that makes your blogging better *I GAG*.

  11. timethief
    Member

    Edit to the foregoing post: There is another way to handle this as well. One simply says I'm accepting both positive and negative feedback until a specific cutoff date and defers posting the comments. Then as of that date they post a numerical data count like this:
    000 specific comments received were supportive stating the innovation was expected or had already proved to be useful to their blogging in the following ways blah, blah, blah and blah;
    000 non-specific supportive comments were also received;

    000 comments received were not supportive stating the innovation was expected to or had already affected their blogging negatively in the following ways blah, blah, blah and blah;
    000 non-specific non-supportive comments were also received.

    This brings up another *VERY IMPORTANT* aspect about making changes and requesting feedback - *Clarification and Follow-up*
    000 requests for clarification of the following points were received and responded to in this manner(1) blah - response (2) blah - response (3) blah - response.

    Eaxmple: We still do not know whether the feedreaders will stop reading when they reach the "but there's so much more" tags like they do when they reach the "more" tags. I asked about this but there was no follow-up response to my request for clarification.

    Every system in the world can be improved as none are perfect. These are my suggestions for improvement and I trust they will be considered as valuable.

  12. timethief
    Member

    poppy please don't pick on collin - he's not really snotty he's just british ;)

  13. sunburntkamel
    Member

    yes, matt deletes dissenting opinions off the main blog.

    if you don't like it, post on your blog about it, link to the article in question (you'll show up as a pingback, which matt _could_ delete, but will continue to exist on technorati and memeorandum). also, tag the post 'wordpress' because matt requires all automattic employees to read the tag page.

  14. cornell
    Member

    Cornell: are you aware you come off extremely sarcastic/snotty/half snarky? If not: let me be the first to inform you. You are so snotty, in all kinds of Posts/answers, I'm close to permanetly ignoring you.

    You know, it's really strange you should mention that. I have regularly thought the same of some of your answers in the forum.

    The way I see it we have two options:

    1. Ignore each other and carry on.
    2. One of us walks away.

    I only really posted in the forum as I thought I was helping. *shrugs*

    TT - Thanks for sticking up for me. Perhaps I'll catch you around sometime.

    :(

  15. britgirl
    Member

    Hey, no Brit bashing here, people! As for deleting in the "paid upgrade ideas" thread, I can hardly believe they are doing that... since they were asking people what they thought. Why ask for opinions if you really don't want to hear them?

    I know I saw a lot of comments which were varying in levels of +veness, some were against any paid features, some wanted WP to remain free. Some of course were +ve towards charging - depending on for what and how much. Very varied. To me it seemed very varied. I hope that Matt (as it was he who solicited opionions and comments and practically said "don't hold back" was not deleting things because they weren't want the devs wanted to hear. That would be sad. And it would make a complete nonsense of the whole exercise.

    Deleting posts in the main forum is a different matter entirely and up to the moderators

  16. britgirl
    Member

    @Cornell. Please stay!

  17. timethief
    Member

    We only have one Moderator and I don't believe drmike would ever delete a comment simply because it was negative. He is a strong advocate in support of people being able to speak their truth to power.
    If it's profane, insulting, spam or completely off in the ozones with respect to the topic he will edit or delete and then he makes an edit entry saying he did so.
    Apparently, this is not happening on the WordPress blog. Negative comments are disappearing into thin air and that needs to change.
    Until that change takes place sunburntkamel has clearly outlined what to do to be at least "on the record" somewhere. But I'm expecting more than that. Why? Because if you've done nothing wrong you do not need to take a defensive posture. Inviting comments is the right thing to do and graciously receiving them, even if they make you grit your teeth (subject to the provisos I outlined before) is the appropriate thing to do. Otherwise as britgirl says "it would make a complete nonsense of the whole exercise".

    As for the spat between poppy and collin SHEESH you two. Please adjust to the cultural differences that exist between communication styles *CHILL* and start thinking better of each other, okay? And as for brit bashing, you must be kidding - we won't be having any of that around here I'm a Canuck and we excel at making peace [she said reaching for her rocket launcher]. :D lol

  18. poppy8sd
    Member

    QUESTION: What Will You Be Willing to Pay For?
    REPLY: Nothing. I believed the statement "Free Blogging @ WP." So if I want something unique/special/up-grade: I'd get a host, create my own website, which is what I did/doing.

    I'm shocked that a "better" template is offered for payment; then asking what other pieces will be acceptable to nickel/dime to bits.

    That's rough paraphrase of my On-Topic/non-spam/non-frivilous posts, which did not appear. I do also think it "bad form" to ask then edit/slant replies, because they don't "fit" pre-determined agenda. My replies were sent long enough ago, and still don't appear, so that I guess I must conclude: they won't/techs are withholding. I note, for the future.

  19. ujwala
    Member

    the missing comments are back. maybe it was an oversight. i'm happy to see that everyones opinion is being given space at wp.com.

  20. poppy8sd
    Member

    "missing comments are back."

    ujwala: Not sure what that means. Re: Charge for CSS, Payment ideas Posts, I don't see any change. I don't see your name, mine or difference in total posts.... What do you see?

  21. cornell
    Member

    Poppy - I went through the whole thread and couldn't see yours or Ujwala's comments either.

  22. matt
    Staff

    poppy8sd, I don't know why you are so angry but please calm down or we're going to have to restrict your account somehow. If you continue to act as you have, your comments are never going to show up on the main blog. (You know exactly what I mean, it has nothing to do with being critical. There are plenty of critical comments in both threads.) If you have any future concerns, feel free to email me. Thanks and happy blogging.

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