Well goddamnit!

Folks who have read this blog for any quasi-significant period of time realize that I am an enormous fan of free speech. I just love it and, consequently, spend a lot of time on my blog talking about it. I even have a number of policies devoted to it- such as my willing acceptance of pretty much any comment no matter how stupid or insulting, my tendency to not re-write past posts even if I realize I was a total cock-monger, and my standing offer to publish rebuttals from those who are criticized on my site. This is not to say that I'm a prince or anything, just that I at least make the effort to practice what I preach.

Sadly, however, my openness on these issues is being abused. Now, I really like comments and I've received some good ones. As a result of a post on the madness that is Ramtha I've been involved in a pretty involved discussion with my own Sainted Fiancee. In response to a post about those wacky guys the Masculists I've received feedback not only from the founder of the Masculists but also from a compatriot of his who has only a passing familiarity with the English language. Neat!

Unfortunately, these sorts of comments have not been the only ones I've been receiving. Recently I have been getting a lot of comment spam. Worse, comment spam that doesn't even pretend to be legitimate. For example, a while back I wrote a post titled Gambling in reference to President Bush's military policy. In response I've received several comments which both advertise gambling sites. One of them actually suggested that Bush use one of these sites to practice gambling so that he'd do better with the troops. These annoyed me, and other instances of comment spam have been showing up here and there, but what finally killed it for me was a comment left to last Friday's post on rape, abortion, and religious extremism. This comment was nothing more or less than an advertisement for synthetic motor oil! This is really the straw that broke the camel's back and, so, I have an announcement: Total Drek is instituting comment moderation in order to cut down on this crap. Please take a look at the following...

Total Drek Moderation Policy:

(1) Comments will be moderated:

Comments will be submitted to me via e-mail before appearing on the site so that they can be examined for content. Comments consisting of inappropriate content will be deleted without appearing on the site. All other comments will appear as soon as possible. This does not mean you should e-mail me your comments- the comment system will take care of that for you- it just means that there will be a delay between when you submit a comment and when it appears.

(2) Appropriate content:

Appropriate content for comments includes: Thoughtful, constructive criticism or additions to the posts. Unhelpful scathing critiques. Arguments against what I say. Arguments against other commenters. Insults directed at me, the staff, or other commenters. Rude remarks. Self-deprecating remarks. Hateful remarks. Swearing. Profanity. Suggestive language. Good jokes. Bad jokes. Not funny jokes. Jokes about your mom. Jokes about my mom. Jokes about somebody else's mom. Generally speaking, anthing not included under "Inappropriate content."

(3) Inappropriate content:

Advertisements of goods and services- particularly if those goods either have nothing to do with the subject of the post, or are tangentially related in a way that is actually pretty tasteless. Exceptions may be made for unusually funny or oddly appropriate advertisements. I've never seen anything that would fall into this category but, hell, you never know, right?

(4) General moderation information:

Appropriate comments will be cleared as soon as I possibly can get to them. I really don't care what you say so long as you're not trying to waste my time, and my readers' time, with unsolicited ads. I really don't like much of anyone so don't bother complaining. I know this is a pain in the ass but, frankly, the spam is just too ridiculous for me to put up with any longer.

Thank you.