´óÏó´«Ã½

In some of the Archbishop strands in recent days - and in the Mills/McCartney strand yesterday, there were recurring questions about moderation of comments.

We haven't been ignoring them. We wanted to put together something by way of explanation, and information for everyone (and I have been in this boat on occasion) who finds comments that apaprently moderate comments have been moderated. There is stuff under FAQ but Jennifer - of iPM fame - has been working hard on something more substantial.

I hope you find her work of use. Let us know what you think...and whether any of what's below should perhaps be incorporated into FAQs.

Here's what Jennifer has written:

"Moderation on the PM blog
Hi, I work on the iPM programme and blog and am a new(ish) member of the PM team. I've noticed that people are getting frustrated about why some of their comments 'suddenly disappear' and as I've been talking to the mods about using this comments system on the iPM blog, I thought it might be helpful to explain how it works.

A group in the ´óÏó´«Ã½ called The Central Communities Team moderate all the ´óÏó´«Ã½ blogs and messageboards including the PM blog. They moderate new people that sign up, check the comments when someone complains and answer our, the PM editorial team's, blog-queries - more on what they do.

They're not a part of the PM programme team which is good because it often means fresh-eyes and no pre-conceived ideas on the content of comments or their author, and not so good as they're not necessarily across what we’re doing on the programme and so can be moderating comments outwith any context.

As I understand it, as soon as someone makes a complaint the post is automatically removed - the moderators look it over and see if the complaint should be upheld - if there are no grounds, they re-instate the post.

If it's upheld, you'll get a standard email explaining that it's been removed and a general idea of why (general because I think they chose from the list of house rules which one it has broken) the official stuff on complaints.

I think you can also email back and ask why, though some of the comments from another thread suggest this isn't the case - Gillianian, Ed Iglehart and Chris_Ghoti - I've noted your comments and will see what they say.

I think the mods try and view these posts fairly quickly so they can reinstate asap if they think the complaint unjustified. Though they sometimes have to refer to other ´óÏó´«Ã½ staff or even lawyers to check post ok so may take a bit longer.

You can read more about how the comments system works in an earlier FAQ post on the PM blog.

If you do want to contact the moderators - you can get in touch via their feedback form

And if you want to complain about how the PM blog is moderated, you can do it via the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Complaints website

Hope that's helpful
Jen"

I would want to emphasise Jen's point about the moderation not having anything to do with anyone at PM. I, for example, have no idea who they are, any of their names or even which building they work out of. I think from YOUR point of view that's good. It means, for example, that Glass Box comments that criticise the programme makers cannot be moderated BY the programme makers. It also means that the accusations of censorship levelled at us, over the Archbishop comments and others, cannot fairly be directed at the PM programme team or any of our editorial bosses. The process is separate. I concede that doesn't make it fair - it just means it's not down to us!

• Bookmark with:
• |
• |
• |
• |
• - What's this?