Comment Policies

The recent news that Robert Scoble has changed his comment policy has created a flurry of buzz throughout the blogosphere. Some accuse him of censorship, although the vast majority of posts I’ve come across express support for his decision.

Serendipitously, Anil Dash recently wrote, “There’s absolutely nothing wrong with creating a smart policy about what kind of feedback is appropriate, explaining what your expectations are for accountability in a conversation, and enforcing your company’s standards for dialogue in a public setting.”

We couldn’t agree more. But the last thing we want to do is just provide more fodder for the echo chamber without adding value to the conversation, and this is one discussion that has been talked about from a number of different angles - so it’s definitely hard to come up with anything entirely fresh.

I think the bottom line here is that company culture plays a serious role in this. The standard of decorum on Robert Scoble’s blog may be entirely different than that expected from commenters on a snowboarding or punk rock-oriented blog. As long as the guidelines are clear, everyone can be expected to respect them.

And in the end, even very strict comment policies don’t amount to censorship. Because even if…just for the sake of argument…Bob Lutz over at Fastlane Blog does decide to take down a comment or two, those commenters can always set up their own blogs and write whatever they want. The blogger enforcing the comment policy isn’t infringing on their right to free speech any more than the editor who selects which letters make it into to the Sunday New York Times is infringing on the rights of the thousands of people who will never have a letter published in that particular paper. The editor has the right to determine what letters appear in his or her publication just as the blogger has the right to determine what comments appear on his or her blog.