I officially take back every bad thing I have said about TPM, though I still think it would be a no-brainer to tailor their Internet development strategy to be more responsive to requests by their members. They should be turning out new functionality continually, not just answering questions about why things don’t work right or haven’t changed despite numerous posts on the subject.
Having said all that, I have never had a comment not post because I used some “bad words” in expressing myself like just happened at Huffington Post. I most certainly never had it kick a comment out even when no such words were present. What are those words? Is there a list of the words? Are they same as the seven Carlin pointed out? Can such censorship ever apply to a medium such as the Internet? How many people leaving your website does it take to realize this is a crappy policy?
At worst, I lost comments because I put too many links in it in making my often overly-long responses. OK. I get it. If a comment needs a bunch of links just write a blog about it and quit clogging up threads with treatises. I can actually see where that policy stimulates better content.
But “Your Comment has been Deleted by the ‘Bad Word’ Filer” is going beyond reasonable standards for adult-focused websites that focus mostly on politics and pop culture. Face it. Many Americans have dirty fucking mouths when they are pissed. We have plenty to be pissed about. Get over it.
It also reminded me why I left Huffington Post in the first place. As much as I get fed up with certain TPM members, this place is heads and shoulders above what I see on HuffPost. Even our dumbest trolls are Rhodes Scholars in comparison to most erudite comments and blogs on HuffPost.
My next blog will be in response to <a href=”http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/06/29/a-reminder-for-senator-ob_n_109846.html”>the lame Jason Linkins post that set me off in the first place.</A> If that is what passes for astute political analysis by HuffPost’s paid staff these days, I’ll take our unpaid bloggers any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
Case in point on functionality that is confusing or contradictory. Make the interface the same for blogging and comments! Should be a simply change on one of the PHP “controls” for the site.
At any rate, this is the Jason Linkins blog that substituted intelligent and objective analysis for a Don Quixote general election fantasy.
I had a comment deleted at TPM when I told a spammer to please fuck off, but I can’t say I was too upset about it.
If they deleted a couple of my potty-mouth posts, I must say I wouldn’t be too pissed off. I can get a little hot under the collar. Yet, we seem to have more rope to allow our “voices” semi-free reign at TPM.
Indeed. I highlighted this a while back when my post was disallowed by the swear filter for, apparently, the word ‘sex’.
http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/2008/06/huffpo-goes-pc.php
All good comments on your blog. HuffPost sucks. Now if I can just convince TPM to adopt a more robust Web 2.0 development strategy this place would be perfect instead of really damn good.
Jason, I inadvertently went to Seaton’s post (something I try to avoid) and replied to an Old Grouch comment wherein I cited comments by Seaton and BG. When I went to post the comment I noticed these comments were no longer on the screen. You had comments already posted and was wondering if you saw the post where Seaton asserts: Obama changing his middle name from Herman to Hussein.
Sorry to intrude on this post but it the subject does seem to be relavent. Thanks.