Our Benevolent Overlord aka What's the comment moderation policy?

[neo von retorch]

On the most recent post, "Case Study: Average Everyday Complainypants Seeks Redemption", someone commented about advice on selling a brand new car with a 5 year loan. I posted a few math tidbits and comments about insurance and depreciation, and my comment said "awaiting moderation." Now... it's just not there at all. It seems it didn't pass the sniff test. Does anyone know how these decisions are made?

I'm feeling so unwelcome that basic comments aren't able to make it through to the public. Why would I be rejected in this fashion?

[Bob W]

I assume your talking about the comment board on the blog by MMM?   

The Leader is a busy man.  I'm really surprised he has the time to read all the comments that must be submitted.   I have had some get through with even a personal reply comment back.  I have had others disregarded for what I assumed was my lack of tact and possibly for disagreeing.   But it could have been,  I'm just too busy to read all this drivel. 

That and I assume that after day 1 he is pretty much done with it and on to driving his car to Canada without turning on the AC while avoiding sure death by not falling off of one of those roofs he is on. 

So don't take it personally if your post doesn't end up in bright lights.  You can always join the forum discussion regarding the recent posts where there seems to be open debate.

To be honest, my perception has been that the Leaders recent posts have been decent though.   I enjoyed learning about snow tires vs. SUVs.   I always knew that but had forgotten and it was nice to see the engineering behind it.   I think my post made it through on Day 1 but I'm not sure and wouldn't be hurt if it wasn't.   

[neo von retorch]

Ah ha - in fact, the comment went through. It "disappeared" while in moderation when I refreshed the page. It was not rejected.

[arebelspy]

Previous discussions on this:
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/continue-the-blog-conversation/deleted-comment-on-'the-black-hole-second-home'/
http://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/welcome-to-the-forum/have-i-been-'locked-out'/


Mrs. MM's comment:

Guys,

We have an auto spam filter -- many people contact us to tell us their comment wasn't approved and there it is sitting in the spam filter if I search for it. The spam filter is not perfect, but we get a ton of spam, so it is mandatory.

If you've successfully commented before, then your comment will appear. You only need one approved comment to be approved again. If your comment appeared and then disappeared, it probably got deleted by MMM himself.

If you've never successfully commented before, then it's possible your comment showed up in spam or it was deleted.  MMM and I both approve comments.  Sometimes I'm not sure whether a comment should be approved (for example, there are 6 sitting unapproved right now after I approved about 10 others -- not deleted, but just sitting there). 

If you're trying to plug your own blog and you're not contributing to the discussion, then it will probably get deleted (this happens a lot). If you're overly gushing with praise, it will get deleted (this happens a lot). If you are extremely negative without contributing to the discussion, you will get deleted.  If many people have said the same thing before you, then your comment will likely be deleted. If the comment is off topic, it might get deleted.

There are a LOT of comments to sift through -- it's not like we have something against certain people - you look at it quickly and decide and move on. I approve almost all the comments I see. MMM approves almost all comments as well.  A very small portion get deleted. In the past, MMM sometimes e-mailed certain people to let them know why their comment was deleted. If you e-mail him about it, he will probably let you know, although he gets a ton of e-mails.

MMM loves discussion and he doesn't delete comments just because people don't agree with him - that's ridiculous. Like I said, it's a lot of work and we do the best we can.

Right now there are 31,406 approved comments. There are 203 trashed comments. This dates back to September 2012, so 203 trashed comments in a year. The spam filter has caught 344,202 spam comments in just the last 6 months.

We often get a lot of e-mails commenting on how useful and valuable the comments are. Some people say the prefer the comments to the actual article! Obviously we value the readers and their comments - it's an essential part of the community.

So, calm down, nothing personal.

[mozar]

Wow that's a lot of work!

[Bob W]

Wow indeed!  Thanks for that arebelspy.