[Housekeeping] Illness, comments back on moderation, 410-gone

Just three housekeeping notes:

Illness
Firstly I’m just getting over a nasty bit of flu (well, cold really – but flu sounds better on the sick note). So I’m sorry for not responding to comments via the blog (or sending out an email, where appropriate) over the last few days. I’m also behind on my emails too. 🙁

Comments
Secondly I have turned comment moderation back on. I’ve done this for two reasons:

• I’m still getting spammed (like all bloggers), and I’m not really into promoting penis pumps and viagra on this blog
• Comment moderation was always on from the beginning. I turned it off during the massive influx of comments that I received last week. But we’re kinda back to “normal business” now.

As has always been, my moderation policy will continue as follows:

1. All comments, good or bad, will be posted. I don’t pick and choose the comments go up.
2. I will, however dump comments that are off-topic/spam or blatant abuse that doesn’t move the conversation forward. “Ben, I think you are a prick” is an example of such a comment (thanks to the person who sent that to me, I hope you have a nice day too).
3. Once you have had one comment approved all future comments will go up automatically without moderation – as long as you use the same email address (standard WordPress functionality)
4. I try and turn around all comments held for moderation within a few hours – unless I’m sleeping

I don’t think moderating comments stifles conversation, as I’m not going to dump your comments just because they might disagree with me (look back at my recent comments for proof of that!). And once you’ve commented once your comment goes up automatically forever more. Seems fair to me.

410 – Gone
Some of you may have been experiencing 410 – Gone HTTP error messages recently. I’ve had some natty little HTTP-REFERRER checks on my blog’s .htaccess that try and dump requests from spammers. However, I think one of the keywords appeared in a recent blog post which caused all sorts of troubles. I’ve removed said .htaccess rules – but please let me know if these errors continue (do include which page you were on before – thanks!).