Bishop Hill How do the BBC moderate their blog comments?
A week or two back, I wondered if my comments to a BBC comments thread had been censored, as my reply sat in a moderation queue for four days, while the argument raged on without my contribution. Eventually my comment was released, with its link to a file of correspondence relating to the CRU's withholding of climate data deleted. According to the email from the moderators, this was because I had linked to a PDF file, something that is apparently against site rules.
I thought at the time that this was odd, since another commenter had posted a PDF link shortly after mine. This other PDF was posted by someone on the warming side of the argument.
Now one of the other commenters on the thread has got in touch to say that he had pointed out to the moderators the doctoring of a quote by another commenter, saying that this ought not to be tolerated. For anyone who followed the thread, this doctoring was done by the same commenter whose principal line of argument seemed to be to accuse everyone else of lying. And also the same one who managed to post a PDF unmolested by the moderators.
The moderators felt that doctoring quotes was OK.
So, according to BBC moderators, it appears that accusing other commenters of lying is acceptable. Doctoring quotes is acceptable. And posting PDFs is acceptable so long as you adhere to socially acceptable norms on the subject of global warming.
It's probably something to do with the unique way they are funded.
Reader Comments (19)
The last time I pinned Richard Black down for an obvious untruth his responses became "Mr Black is currently on holiday. Your e-mail will be dealt with on his return".
Needless to say, it wasn't.
For a post that appears to deliberately misquote someone to be left in place after being brought to the attention of the moderators destroys any credibility the blog may have had.
Perhaps they are confident that licence payers will be able to fund any possible legal action.
Their response was that I should argue it out on the boards and that they wouldn't get involved.
It would be fun to the BBC to court for publishing defamatory comments but possibly a bit hard to do from NZ!
The moderation is clearly bananas and a PITA, but partisan? I don't see that. People from all sides of the argument had stuff removed in that thread, including a comment from the owner of the blog!
Also, even if you were correct it is a ridiculously hasty generalisation to attribute the moderation on one blog to the BBC as a whole.
That was bizarre, wasn't it? One problem is there seems to be no way to contact the moderators, except by posting something, but every time I've done that (pointing out the defamatory nature of some of the comments) it's just been spiked. I even suggested that the chief offender might himself be a moderator, as it seemed the only way he could get away with it, but they didn't care for that suggestion either...
I was actually being rather careful here. The moderation, we agree, is bizarre. My concern is that I was not allowed to post a PDF but yeah_whatever was.
I posted a comment on another Blog of Bloom thread where they had invited people to discuss Al Gore's Nobel. I said words to the effect that the blog's comments threads were all shouting and no discussion. Referred to moderator.
Then I responded to another comment from someone who said that sceptics all had bad grammar and spelling. I pointed out that he had made grammatical errors in his own posting. Referred to moderator.
"Yeah_Whatever
This is a test: you are a liar."
Let's see what happens.
And its Richard Black who's doing it.
My guess is that unless the BBC is sued for breaching its own guidelines, this sort of thing will continue.
What is this, a PDP11 or something?
Andrew
No, it was switched off. Your comment prompted me to find out how to switch it on again!!!
Lazy eh?!
Forgive me for not identifying myself, but I am a professional journalist (not with the BBC!) and I have developed some concerns over the last few months.
People here might find this recent BBC Blog posting of interest, since it may be the only opportunity to raise concerns like those expressed here with the BBC at all.
Well, sorrry for wasting your (and my) time, since all question of the moderation process itself (whatever their implications for the cost) are 'off-topic' and to be forgotten about.
What a surprise.
Yes, I'd posted a comment on the subject myself, but it has been removed. Ho hum.
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