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A Note Regarding Comments

New commenters here must have one comment approved before they can routinely post without moderation. A recent comment contained a Nazi reference, calling a public figure a Nazi (he isn’t one). I deleted it without letting it go through.

In our basic civility-rules stance, comparing people to Nazis is not acceptable. The only exception is if the person being discussed is or was an actual Nazi.

I emailed the person who tried posting the comment, inviting a re-submission with the reference taken out.

3 Comments on “A Note Regarding Comments”

  1. #1 John Bachir
    on Aug 5th, 2007 at 9:29 am

    “A recent comment contained a Nazi reference. I deleted it without letting it go through.”

    Isn’t that something the Nazis would do? 😉

    No really though, I don’t know precisely what the comment was, but your simple characterization of it as “a Nazi reference” is not a convincing argument for automatic censorship.

  2. #2 Dan Gillmor
    on Aug 5th, 2007 at 11:17 am

    I thought it was clear (and I updated to make it even clearer) that the reference was calling someone a Nazi.

    In general, I subscribe to the idea that when someone feels the need to make a Nazi analogy, the argument isn’t going anywhere except in the rarest of circumstances.

  3. #3 Tripp Fenderson
    on Aug 7th, 2007 at 5:47 am

    Godwin’s Law strikes again!