In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Announcement

zuzu

I just had to clear out over 200 spam messages from the filter and from various threads where they’d gotten through.

And, of course, added a whole new list of fairly common words to the spam list.

So do me a favor, before you write a comment complaining that your post is stuck in moderation, and why do your posts always get stuck in moderation, do you have something against me, huh, or can you just not handle disagreement:

DON’T.

Just don’t. If you ever want ANY of your posts to show up here again, DO NOT ask us why your post is in moderation.

Thank you.

P.S. Lauren, I know you had something to do with it.

33 thoughts on Announcement

  1. (comfort zuzu)

    I just had to delete my first bona-fide spam from the feminist gamers site.

    Who the hell would be reading a site for video gamers and see a comment promising low rate mortgages, and think to themselves “wow! this looks credible! I think I’ll sign up today for a 100K+ home loan from these people who market their product by writing incoherent comments on blogs owned and paid for by other people!”

    (OK, I know this is all about driving up google rankings, but it still boggles the mind that people feel this is an intelligent strategy).

  4. I saw those early this morning, but was running out the door and decided to delete them later. Imagine my (very happy) surprise when I check the mod queue this afternoon and they were all gone. Thank you, Zuzu!

    And if it makes you feel any better, every single one of those spam messages got emailed to me, because I get an email every time there’s a comment in moderation. So I did have to delete more than 200 spam emails this morning. I feel your pain.

  5. You need to be running “Bad Behavior” and Spam Karma 2 WITH Akismet plugin for SK2. I found that the Bad Behavior plugin was crucial. This allows you to relax standards on SK2 and not be moderating the hell out of everyone.

  7. Trying to keep out the number spam just proves that you’re all a bunch of HATERS!!!!1!!!!1!1!

  8. I see a lot of the “you’re moderating me, you can’t stand dissent” comments here and on Pandagon, and my first thought is always that the person cannot possibly be an even semi-regular commentor or they would realize that just about everyone will have a comment end up in moderation occasionally, if only because of the quirky way that spam filters and the like operate.

  11. It’s the ‘net equivalent of “Dear Editor: I am sure that your newspaper will not have the courage to publish my letter….”

  13. zuzu —

    My comments keep ending up in moderation, and all I’m doing is trying to offer cia1i$ and \/1agra to your readers at reasonable prices! You’re all fascists!

    — ACS

  15. The scientist in me now wants to leave lots and lots of comments and analyze which get moderated and which don’t to discover the super secret list of banned words. I will then have the power to defeat the spam filter, BWA HA HA HA.

    The lazy person in me is more likely to take a nap or something.

  16. I was getting stuck in mod, but I figured out it was on accounta different email addresses on my desktop and laptop. So, hopefully this post will synchronize it…

  18. One of my hard and fast rules is if I see someone in the moderation queue—especially someone who is in it because it’s his first comment ever—complaining that I’m “censoring” him by treating him the same as everyone else, I delete it immediately. If you are eager to feel censored, I’m happy to comply. I’ve yet to see anyone complain like that without being a ripe asshole who has nothing to contribute anyway.

  21. It’s just the pilots’ union going after you guys, you know?

    Besides–why do you hate spammers so much, huh? Why? They have families. And they’ll be taken care of by the invisible hand of capitalism anyhow, y’all.

    I mean, I know you won’t post this comment, ’cause you can’t handle anything but echo-chamber groupthink, but…

  23. Pingback: Why I Need To Redesign Feministe (Again) at Faux Real

  24. Dear Penthouse:

    I never thought I’d be writing to you but something extraordinary happened to me recently and I just had had to share….

    What? It’s the truth!

  27. The first time I had a comment hang in moderation was at pandagon and I, being as thinskinned, thickskulled and inclined toward paraonia as anyone else, thought WTF! THATS NOT FAIR!

    and the next impulse is pure reflex for netizens: fire off a query smacking strongly of protest.

    Lately, I notice there has been an uptick in spambot and human-applied spamage for commercial purposes and the consequence is moderation dwell times at several of the high traffic blogs that hit issues hard. Lindsay told me it was typepad that insisted on setting moderation to the max…I used to only get challenged if I added links or other wiggly active contetent. I am used to it now. This post is a good idea but it will flow away into the calendar’s cold maw. Maybe a little more graphic prominence for your moderation policy? I know the policy is there…you spent precious above-the-fold space on it. but maybe all the anxious people did not notice?

    I don’t know what would work better. Maybe
    “WE MODERATE SO YOU ONLY READ REAL CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE DIALOG: your patience will be rewarded.”

    The problem with telling the difference between an eager public and home invaders is not YOUR problem but try to tell that to the home invaders.

    Hang in there Zuzu.
    I do.

  28. Amanda:
    “ripe asshole”? that is a bit harsh. Some of us are yet a bit green;) I would say on behalf of clueless newbies: they are not uniformly destined to become belligerently clueless. But its your blog. Come to think of it, I actually dashed off something irate that first time I encountered a moderation delay at P’gon.
    But just knowing there was such a thing as moderation and that sites which deal in topics that some people consider controversial are always targets, I sat on my little annoyance. If I had actually used the word “censor” or something to that effect, I would actually have never seen my comments appear? They say character is fate. I wonder if patience is fate…..

    BTW, Mazeltov on the sister’s wedding. Drive carefully, I hear there are a few drunks on the road between Austin and Alpine.

  29. Maybe you could add a line under the comment policy, or between “leave a reply” and the form stating that you have a huge list of words that trip the moderation filter and anyone asking why their comment was moderated will be banned.

  30. Maybe you could add a line under the comment policy, or between “leave a reply” and the form stating that you have a huge list of words that trip the moderation filter and anyone asking why their comment was moderated will be banned.

    Or shot!

  31. The scientist in me now wants to leave lots and lots of comments and analyze which get moderated and which don’t to discover the super secret list of banned words. I will then have the power to defeat the spam filter, BWA HA HA HA.

    I’m more intrigued as to why, if I leave two comments one after another *pees on floor*, generally only one comment gets modded.

    I mean, If is was a spammer, why on earth would I leave a coherent comment after the spam one with the exact same name and everything? What sort of crazy spambot logic is it protecting against!? what the hell?

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