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1. 5700words
   Member
   Aug 28, 2011, 5:12 PM

   I have an "open door" policy on not moderating comments because I discovered that I was spending a lot of time reading perfectly ok comments before having them ok'd for publication in my blog.

   However, I have a question about blocking.

   When I write someone's name or email address (not IP address) for blocking, does that person/persons know immediately that he/she/they are blocked or is it just that they write a comment and leave, thinking that I disallowed it, but only after i've read it? I would like for a person to know immediately that his/her comment is not being published/saved for moderation to be later published. That stops future attempts.

   -Peregrine

   The blog I need help with is peregrine5700.wordpress.com.

2. timethief
   Member
   Aug 28, 2011, 6:00 PM

   There is no means of BLOCKING anyone from reading and submitting comments to a blog that has the blog visibility set to "public". All we can do is use Moderation of comments and/or the Comment Blacklist. Comment Blacklist is very similar to the Comment Moderation list, but when something matches here, the comment is marked as spam instead of held for moderation.

   I have zero confidence in the concept of relying on IPs for preventing receipt of comments. The days of IPs being unique are long gone. ISPs place hundreds of users in the same IP block to save money. The result is you can be blocking hundreds of others simply because you do not want to approve an unwelcome comment. I would simply delete annoying comments from persistent people. comments. Spam is NOT an annoying comment. Spam comes from scammers trying to sell products or services we do not wish to purchase and from those trying to get a link to their blog posted on ours for commercial reasons. IPs can be easily changed. Anyone can get a new one without much hassle. Moreover, there are many of us that have dynamic ie. ever changing IPs.

3. timethief
   Member
   Aug 28, 2011, 6:02 PM

   When I write someone's name or email address (not IP address) for blocking, does that person/persons know immediately that he/she/they are blocked or is it just that they write a comment and leave, thinking that I disallowed it, but only after i've read it?

   They are not notified of anything whatsoever.

   I have an "open door" policy on not moderating comments because I discovered that I was spending a lot of time reading perfectly ok comments before having them ok'd for publication in my blog.

   I recommend that you use comment moderation. You have two choices which are moderation only of first time commenters or full moderation. I suggest you make a choice between the two and implement the choice you make.

4. thesacredpath
   Member
   Aug 28, 2011, 6:57 PM

   I use comment moderation for first time commenters on my sites typically. That cuts down on the number that need moderation, but still lets me catch any that are not in line with my comment policy and it will typically also catch any spam comments that the spam filter does not catch.

5. 5700words
   Member
   Aug 28, 2011, 7:09 PM

   Hi Sacred Path and TimeThief--
   Well, what I did do was add the name to that area in Settings/Blocking. I entered the name and email address but not IP because I learned a long time ago that blocking an IP is not a good system.

   I am going to just continue to allow free commenting because I think that a reader enjoys seeing his or her comment immediately in my blog. I don't mind disagreeing comments, just ad hominem ones that derail from the topic.

   I'd rather have many many people be pleased to immediately see their comment than to snare a bad actor right at his/her moment of hostility.

   But if I had my choice, I would love to have open non-moderated commenting plus the ability to block a hostile person in a way that he/she immediately knows he is being blocked .......... because I suspect that such people write their personal attack and then go on and never return to realize that the offending comment is....... *gone*. :-) :-) :-)

   -Peregrine

6. timethief
   Member
   Aug 28, 2011, 8:42 PM

   I forgot to mention that getting a new email address takes only minutes above. Thanks for letting us know this is resolved.

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