First: you folks sure do like to comment on Millstone articles.
In fact, you’ve done that 9,873 times since we set up the Disqus commenting system back around 2013. That’s a lot of opinions.
Second: I’m tired of accusations that we delete comments whose content we don’t happen to agree with. We rarely delete comments for any reason, and only then if we deem they contravene our commenting policy.
Acceptable are comments that are civil and constructive.
Unacceptable are comments that contain, among other things, offensive language or personal attacks, or are potentially defamatory.
Our interpretation of those criteria is obviously subjective. We may consider language offensive that you don’t. That’s our call. But again, we rarely delete comments.
What we strive for in the comments section is a place where everyone can feel comfortable expressing their views without being insulted or belittled. We hope you’ll speak as if the other person was sitting across the table from you at a local coffee shop — not as an anonymous nobody at the other end of a computer screen.
Yes yes… so why didn’t my comment appear?
Most often because the Disqus system has flagged the comment as potential spam or otherwise problematic content. We have no control over this, but we do check a few times a week to ensure legitimate comments aren’t being blocked. If we find any we approve them for publication.
Sometimes the comment was simply never posted at all. Disqus records every comment received, and in some cases where we supposedly deleted one it never arrived in the first place. Maybe you forgot to hit the SEND button?
Short version: if you keep your comments civil and don’t insult or demean people, we won’t delete them — whether we happen to share your opinion or not.
