Comment Policy on the Hervey Bay Gossip
One of the great things about the Internet is that it brings people together from all walks of life and in some circumstances it gives us all a chance to have our say and be heard by those around us.
After many years of involvement with the Internet I’ve seen the good - and the bad - that this medium can do for people. When I started the Hervey Bay Gossip I still had some delusions about the benefits it could bring to Hervey Bay.
Sadly I now have to admit that they really were delusions and by leaving the comments open to just about anyone who wanted to make a genuine comment I was leaving myself - and others - open to unfair and unwarranted criticisms from a small minority of people who had their own axe to grind.
I did attempt to overcome the situation by turning off the comments on those posts that, from a business point of view, were necessary to make but which I knew would bring out those unfair and unwarranted criticisms. Unfortunately that hasn’t worked; instead it just meant that the minority moved to other posts to make those comments.
I have experimented with other options but unfortunately the software that powers the Gossip does not seem to be able to handle those options and so I’m now left with no alternative but to turn the comments off entirely. Frankly that saddens me that a very small minority could spoil it so easily.
I could beat the spammers (of which there are many that you never see) quite easily but no one has yet come up with a filter to handle this situation. If they ever do then the comments will be turned back on.
