I think we’re through the worst of it. And for those of you who have suggested some kind of comment moderation, or shutting them down… I thank you for your thoughts, and I did consider a few things. But like I said, I think the worst of it is over, except for the one raging dilbag who keeps chiming in one very post with the n-word, who I would like to beat to death with a ball-peen hammer.

So here are the options…

Option 1: Shut down comments all together. This one certainly isn’t likely to happen… there are too many intelligent and thoughtful comments that would get left out, and only another extreme situation would make me consider it. And I have no desire to just silence anyone who calls me a racist… because I’m subject to the same biases and influences that everyone else in America is. If someone really believes that, I’m not above being called out on it, but at the same time, I don’t want it to absolutely take over the site as it has the last couple of days.

Option 2: Comment moderation, which would basically mean that I’d have to approve every comment before it showed up on the site. We could go this route, but I don’t want to stifle conversations. And there are days when I can’t check the site more often than once or twice through the course of the day, and if it took that long for opinions to show up, I think it’d be difficult to have any kind of exchange of ideas.

Option 3: Shut down comments, but then replace them with a message board. I had been thinking about this anyway, and there are pros and cons.

Pros:

• You’d be able to post anything, anytime, even about subjects that I don’t currently have a thread for.
• I’d have much more control to silence morons with nothing constructive to add, without silencing anyone else.

Cons:

• You’d have to register
• I think it’s easier to just click a comment button right below a post, as opposed to going to the message board, and starting a new topic, etc. The more comments, the better… and I think there might be a few less on a message board.
• With a couple of exceptions, I generally hate internet message boards.

Option 4: Just leave things how they are. I think we’ve turned a corner, and things today are pretty normal and active… which is awesome. We might just be OK.

I’m open to suggestions and/or thoughts on which would be the best options.