Censorship in Robin Linden's Blog Replies

Why are all of Ceera Murakami’s replies being kept out of Robin Linden's blog? (Mine too, for that matter.) She has tried replying to Robin's blog about the forum closures three times, and all are “awaiting moderation”, even though replies to this blog are supposedly no longer being moderated? Even though well over 30 other replies from other folks, made many hours after hers, have been posted for public access? Even though her posts are less critical and inflammatory than some of what HAS been approved???

I guess there is a difference between “moderated” and “censoring dissent”.

totally unreadable to visitors.

Having the posts displayed is much more readable than not having them displayed.

I've posted on answers seeking some statement. Sitting back now.

At this point and given all the data presented I think I know why your posts aren't appearing -- it's because there are way too many submitted posts and they have to keep the total reply count down otherwise it will be totally unreadable to visitors. As it stands the list of replies is already very long.

Not a matter of tone or content. I think it's just sheer number.

Not if bunches of them say exactly the same thing. For clarity's sake, if there are 20 posts that say exactly the same thing, you probably should put up only one or two of them so that other types of replies can appear also.

Fact is, a whole lot of us are saying the same things.

Thinking like a publisher, though a poster will feel bad if a post doesn't appear, it doesn't serve a reader to have to read so many versions of the same thing. One or two posts per type of statement works better.

I'm not saying this is the case. It's just the only explanation I can find that takes into account very ordinary posts that are not appearing.

Still waiting for the reply to my post on Answers. I do hope Torley reaches it today. At least we can end all speculation.

Soooo... "moderate" comments to give the impression that a balanced response has happened rather than show how many people think what you are doing is crap?

That's censorship, not moderation.

Norman Desmoulins Says: Your comment is awaiting moderation.

August 11th, 2006 at 6:05 am
With “Land and Economy” going away in the first cut, please provide some way to request Land Help, such as clearing trash and requesting Linden Land be put up for Auction.

Not if bunches of them say exactly the same thing. For clarity's sake, if there are 20 posts that say exactly the same thing, you probably should put up only one or two of them so that other types of replies can appear also.

Fact is, a whole lot of us are saying the same things.

Thinking like a publisher, though a poster will feel bad if a post doesn't appear, it doesn't serve a reader to have to read so many versions of the same thing. One or two posts per type of statement works better.

I'm not saying this is the case. It's just the only explanation I can find that takes into account very ordinary posts that are not appearing.

Still waiting for the reply to my post on Answers. I do hope Torley reaches it today. At least we can end all speculation.

Not if bunches of them say exactly the same thing. For clarity's sake, if there are 20 posts that say exactly the same thing, you probably should put up only one or two of them so that other types of replies can appear also.

Fact is, a whole lot of us are saying the same things.

Thinking like a publisher, though a poster will feel bad if a post doesn't appear, it doesn't serve a reader to have to read so many versions of the same thing. One or two posts per type of statement works better.

[1] I hope that Torley replies with more than "Looking into this...". I like Torley. I've met her in-world and chatted with her. I pity her right now for being stuck between the Linden Labs decision makers and the angry residents.

Thinking not like a "publisher", but rather like someone who wants to actually know what other people think so I can make an informed decision, culling "similar replies" is a very bad thing. Here is why:

100 people post "This is a BAD idea, DON"T DO IT!", and that gets consolidated to one post, 'because the others said the same thing'. Three other posters say "I like this.", "It's OK with me." and "I have no complaints." - and all three get posted. Gee, 3/4 of the displayed responses think it's OK! Yay for us! That looks so much better than a clear 100 to 3 landslide against the idea, doesn't it?

[2] Ever hear of threaded replies? You post the one that you feel represents the reply the best, and include a link indicating "entries that are similar...", for the other 99? So people can see that a large majority think the same way?

[3] I think that the screw-ups on getting Blog posts to show is a factor if how poorly the Blog application serves as a method for communications, rather than some measure of intent on LL's part to censor us. The blogs and their moderators are completely overwhelmed by the volume of replies. Blogs are NOT a channel for balanced, two-way communication. They are a soapbox for performing a monologue on one person's viewpoint.

Norman Desmoulins Says: Your comment is awaiting moderation.

August 11th, 2006 at 6:05 am
With “Land and Economy” going away in the first cut, please provide some way to request Land Help, such as clearing trash and requesting Linden Land be put up for Auction.

We’ve made a few changes to the back-end infrastructure of this blog over the past few days. Specifically, one of these changes made it very difficult for everyone at LL who releases blog comments from moderation to actually get to the interface to do that job.

There’s about to be a flood of comments released, and we’ll strive to do a better job in getting those turned around more quickly.

That said, there are those who believe we should have absolutely no comment moderation on the blog whatsoever. Because of the amount of incoming comment spam we’re stopping, both with plugins and manually, I have to disagree. Though it’s more work for us to verify that our comments are actually related to Second Life, we’re going to continue this review for the foreseeable future.

Not if bunches of them say exactly the same thing.

That is not true. How can you possibly say that? If twenty people say what one person sees as being the same, the same thing, and only 1 of the posts gets shown, that is 19 posts that can't be seen.

It's easier to read posts that are displayed than it is to read posts that aren't displayed.

[1] If someone wanted to condense similar posts for readability, while still conveying the number of posts that reflect similar ideas, then rather than simply not displaying posts, one could say "Such Avatar posted "post quote". Similar views were expressed by Person1, Person2, Person3, and Person4." The Person1, Person2, and Person3 text would be links to non-repliable versions of the full body of their posts.

[2] I don't want to be contentious, but to suggest that peoples posts are most effectively displayed by not being shown at all is just silly.

Just checked the blogs, and the count of posts in Robin's Blog have jumped to over 133, with all the ones that I was aware of as being 'awaiting moderation' finally appearing where people can see them.

So, we can post blog replies now. But will anyone listen? That remains to be seen.

We’ve made a few changes to the back-end infrastructure of this blog over the past few days. Specifically, one of these changes made it very difficult for everyone at LL who releases blog comments from moderation to actually get to the interface to do that job.

There’s about to be a flood of comments released, and we’ll strive to do a better job in getting those turned around more quickly.

That said, there are those who believe we should have absolutely no comment moderation on the blog whatsoever. Because of the amount of incoming comment spam we’re stopping, both with plugins and manually, I have to disagree. Though it’s more work for us to verify that our comments are actually related to Second Life, we’re going to continue this review for the foreseeable future.