It also filters out profanity, which I hope would not be a problem on this site … but you never know. Also, we have a small staff and a lot of comments, so the filter acts as a safety net for when we can’t be here to monitor things directly.

Please know that we want to make things as easy as possible for you guys, but to ensure that WOW/WMB remains a safe and decent place for our guests, we have to have some safeguards in place. I hope you understand, and I appreciate your patience.

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I understand. My point has never been that I think I’m being discriminated against. Some posts fly … some disappear.

But, a “spam folder” does amount to a de facto moderation of comments … but only those comments which get snagged by the spam filter. And while I can’t be certain of this, I am pretty sure that the majority of my posts that have disappeared in the spam folder (or wherever) have never been eventually reviewed then published.

But again, back to one of my main points: All WMB users are registered. Doesn’t that greatly reduce the need for an impersonal/imperfect “spam filter”?

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Just so you know that our software doesn’t discriminate, it flagged one of my comments this morning!

We’ll try to do a better job monitoring the spam folder to make sure comments that shouldn’t be in there are published, which also will help the filter “learn.”

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Sometimes I put in a hot link using html. Other times I just cut-and-paste it in, “longhand,” so to speak.

Some posts make it through, others don’t. There seems to be no rhyme or reason to it.

Within the last month or two here at WMB, a thread came up that mentioned this phenomena of some posts that contain url’s being put on hold, or some such.

I’ve had it happen myself. Typed a post with a url. It previewed fine. Copied the post, then clicked the POST button, and …

Nada.

So I pasted the copied post, but dropped the h t t p and w w w parts, and inserted a space between the DOT and the COM. Clicked POST, it showed up immediately. And then a few hours later, the original post that had mysteriously disappeared showed up as well — in the queue BEFORE the subsequent re-post.

What I described at (7) as being what I think happens isn’t just something I cooked up in my conspiracy-theory-riddled mind … a WMB staffer actually described it as happening that way — more or less.

At any rate, I think my point is still valid. Every poster on WMB is registered. Nobody who wants to stick around is going to go through the process of registering in order to plant spam or porno links or whatever. If you want, have a two-week (or whatever) probation period before allowing a person to include links. Regardless of the details, please, just teach the system to TRUST US.

Thx …

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I wonder what the left would do to Lincoln today if 30,000 died in one day of battle like the Civil War?

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<a href=”URLHERE.com”>Words you want to appear here</a>

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“Dear Madam, I have been shown in the records of the War Department a statement of the Adjutant-General of Massachusetts that you are the mother of five sons who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died to save. I pray that our heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.” Letter to Mrs. Bixby [Nov. 21, 1864]

Ouch!

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