What Does Moderation Bring?

Rather than discuss the pros and cons of the moderation process on this blog, I will just note that I, personally, enjoy the environment of free form, no consequence speech. Despite this, I prefer to have some handle on the constraint towards the topics or direction this speech has on a blog. Unless, of course, that blog were about such things as being able to discuss … anything. In the last 30 days, my open [non] moderation and open thread produces very little in the way of new traffic, new comments, or new interest. Without revealing numbers, IPAs, or commenter anonyms and the emails associated with them (on occasion), the traffic has been lessened relative to regular traffic on the site. I’ve been holding at a relative steady views-per-day rate over this period, with the only spikes following my one actual post during this open moderation period. Reduced traffic may and likely is a consequence of the lack of new content, for which I cannot apologize due to personal issues. This is also why this post is two days late.

In answer then, moderation brings some “sense” and purpose towards how I can respond to my critics or those who might otherwise praise or comment for their own sake on this blog. But it can also be tyrannical. I hope that this process itself can be reviewed by my readers, and that perusers of the blog take the opportunity to weight in and voice their own interests as far as how this blog operates and its content is produced.

I will be leaving the commenting process completely open for the foreseeable future, until such a time as I feel it needs to change. Any reasoning on this change will be explained at the time. Pardon for the lack of content, and enjoy!

Open Thread

This is an open thread. You may post anything you wish, including discussion of the blog and its author. You may use ad hominems. No person will be blocked, banned from use, nor will any post be removed save that it is actual spam. I look forward to seeing what effect this post will have, if any.

Moderation Review

Mike Taylor at SV-POW! has a post up describing his intentions and perspective on moderation for blogs, a feature that is useful to discuss. I suggest it be read, because Mike suggests something worth considering: removing moderation from the blog.

Gripe

Eventually, when I finish my current projects, I will get around to discussing conodonts, and their jaw-like … things. But for the moment, I’d like to call out to the various sources on the latest paper (not yet published in print in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society, B: Biological Sciences, but available online, here) that has been receiving attention [Taylor Reint's consideration, a Nature blog, and a Scientific American blog treatment] due to the results of finite element analysis (FEA) on one of the posterior P elements of conodonts.

Recap-orama, 2011 Edition

I wanted to try out a “Best of” for this blog, as a way to pull back readers to things they may have missed, or to bring back attention to things they glossed over, or things I flubbed. Also, things I am proud of.

Holiday Hiatus

I’m going to take a break for a while while I collate my thoughts, focus on work, and spend some time piecing together a few projects (including handling Measuring Caenagnathus‘ Jaw, discussing reasons Why Eshanosaurus is Probably Not a Therizinosauroid, and trying to finish up my end of a project with another on a taxon closer to my longer-term interests). I may occasionally break this to discuss a paper, as I did recently with Denver Fowler et al.’s discussion on predatory behavior in eudromaeosaurs (the references therein include a link to the actual paper, which is well worth the read). Until I come back, I leave you all with this: