Censorship Policy
Okay a nice short censorship policy. There will also be a seperate posting policy for those who comment.
1. Do you ever edit comments made by other people?
Yes, but only with great reluctance. And I always make it clear that I have edited the comment by noting the changes I made, so it does not look like they wrote it.
2. How often have you had to edit a comment?
Only twice as of today. Once was in relation to comments made about a Mayor, which were highly defamatory, and the other time was in response to a request of behalf of someone who had been mentioned in a comment, and my high Google rating meant it was coming up as the top search for their name.
UPDATE: Actually it is three times. I forgot that last week I edited a comment speculating about someone in a nasty way.
3. Are you liable for comments other make on this blog?
The advice that I have had is that in some circumstances yes I can be. That is why I reserve the absolute right to delete or edit anything on this blog. The advice from a barrister who specialises in Internet law is that if I had knowledge of the comment, and did not delete it, then I could have liability. As all comments made get e-mailed to me, it would be hard for me to deny knowledge (even though some days there are so many I don’t see them all).
4. So if you sometimes delete comments, how often and why?
I delete thousands of commercial spam comments every month. Have I mentioned I detest spammers?
I have only once deleted a comment outright based on its content. That was in fact just in the last week, being an anonymous highly racist comment. I hope this will not be a habit.
I will also delete any comments made by someone I have banned from commenting on my blog. Only one person has been so banned in 18 months. How one gets banned will be dealt with in my Posting Policy.
5. Do you ever edit your own postings, after publication?
Generally only for typos that I have noticed or had pointed out. If new content is added on, this will generally be noted as an update.
I have also been known to occassionally succumb to pressure and blackmail, and delete a photo which the subject objects to as unflattering. There are some fights you just don’t want to endure!