Uncategorized

Tolerance

Some of you have figured out that when you hit “Report Abuse” on a comment, it goes away to a place where I have to decide whether the comment lives or dies. I’m finding way too many comments in that purgatory that are not offensive in any way, except that somebody apparently disagreed with them.

Stop it. You should know that unless I have a very good reason to kill a comment, it will go right back into the comment queue where it will go right back to upsetting you and probably some other readers too. That’s the price of your right to upset others with your opinions.

So far — and we’re two months into this experiment with comment boards — almost all the discussion has been substantive, polite, focussed on real subjects. Sometimes more party-line partisan than my colleagues and I would like, but partisan allegiance is legitimate too, and we don’t feel like suppressing that either. A time may come when raw abuse is getting tossed around. Lord knows we’ve all seen that on other blogs. If it happens here I will delete offending comments with gusto — and shut the comments down altogether without hesitation if necessary. But since that’s not what’s happening so far, let’s all enjoy the vigorous but generally cordial discussion here.

Looking for more?

Get the Best of Maclean's sent straight to your inbox. Sign up for news, commentary and analysis.
  • By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.
FILED UNDER: