You may have already noticed that commenting is faster. That’s because whitelisting is now enabled. Of course the usual banned words and blacklisted commenter memes will go straight to the nether regions as before. Some comments that are questionable, and require the attention of a moderator will get held for review, but for 99% of people making comments, you’ll see an immediate speed improvement. After a million comments the hard way, it is time to work smarter. This is a win-win for the readers as well as the moderation staff, and particularly for me.
And, there are other improvements coming.
For example, “Tips and Notes” is going to disappear, to be replaced by a better system. This better system will include the ability for more of our readers to submit stories that make it to the front page. Again, this is to improve the speed and lessen the behind the scenes labor. WUWT has gotten so big, that it is a struggle to manage its upkeep now, so the solution is a smarter story management and comment submission system.
Stay tuned for more details, and in the meantime I welcome suggestions. Many of the changes will be implemented this coming weekend, and I’ll have a second post describing how to make the most of them.
In the meantime if you see inappropriate comments, drop us a note in the contact section of the header menu. There may be some tweaking we still need to do, but after years of this I think we have it tuned where spam and inappropriate comments are acted upon properly.
Note: No we can’t provide a comment system that allows you to edit your comments after they are submitted. That’s a feature wordpress.com won’t allow due to it being what they deem a security risk for code injection, even though it is often requested by WUWT and other blogs.
As always, my sincere thanks to everyone in this community that helps make WUWT successful from the readers, to the moderators, to the story tipsters – all of you are part of the success.
Looking forward to the changes. Does this have anything to do with the cryptic twitter post? Oh, and one last thing, the picture arrived that your wife took. It was beautiful. Pondering what kind of custom frame to use. It deserves the “right” frame setting. Beautiful picture, so glad you made it available for purchase.
Anthony:
You are being far too modest when you write
WUWT has the success it so rightly deserves because of your blog policy, your moderation policy, your selection of the excellent moderators, and your oversight of the moderators’ actions.
This is recognised by all who frequently visit WUWT and it needs to be recognised by you so you can obtain the satisfaction at it which is your right.
Richard
@hedgingcontrarianism Yes it had something to do with that twitter post. Can’t say for a long while but it was a huge shock…so time to work smarter.
Glad you liked the poster.
Anthony, I have noticed changes already! Two posts I wrote were on the website within seconds! I thought that you had moderators OD’ing on caffeine! Please keep up the good work, I can see that CAGW will become the International Yardstick for Bad Science! Hopefully sooner rather than later!
This will take workload off moderators. I am astonished how dedicated your assistants have been. Probably, like me, they think they are involved in an important cause – just like the Warmistas, but on the sensible side.
[Reply: Robert, you are right. We help out because we believe in getting the word out. Too few in the Media feel compelled to provide both sides of the debate. And we do it without one cent from Big Oil! — mod.]
Canadian weather update: SNOW!
OK, that headline may rank along with “Man Bites Dog” but we here in Ottawa are getting 6 to 8 inches of snow on Friday.
C’mon, I should be doing my garden prep by now, but the ground is still frozen with snow all around. It’s Spring, for heat’s sake!
Are you going to be able to easily modify the filter dictionary?
That way you could eliminate artful misspellings that often penetrate more sclerotized dictionaries such as writing “a$$” or “äss” to represent the obvious normal spelling.
REPLY: yes easily updated, will update on an as need basis – Anthony
Anthony
Thanks to you, Willis Eschenbach, Bob Tisdale, and other great guest posters, WUWT is the “must read” blog on the internet. Not one WUWT post goes up without me reading and appreciating it. And then adapting one or more posts for my weekly letter to our local newspaper. the Gualala, California, Independent Coast Observer, which is “all CAGW all the time.”
REPLY: Suggest you change your blog name or not include it in comments, it has a trigger word – Anthony
OK question about how this new system works.
I just sent two posts, the first, right on subject, has not appeared. The second, OT, appeared immediately. Did the first post contain “trigger” words that required human verification?
Great Idea, Mr. Watts. Speedier commenting will clarify debate and add a more conversational tone. Look forward to it. Thanks for all the work. It’s appreciated. JP
Anthony, another question.
How does Google know that I am looking for both a job and a hot Latina (Brasilian prefered).
Just an observation of the Ads 🙂
REPLY: Contextual history stored in cookies and other means of tracking browsing – Anthony
Candidates for diversion to the round file:
“consensus”
“overwhelming evidence”
“deniers”
“Koch”
“big oil”
“multiple independent lines”
Just to throw a few out.
Are you telling us WUWT is getting even better?
That’s the mark of a true professional–already on top, but still improving!
Needless to say, all your efforts are much appreciated out here in the frozen backwoods.
Suggest you change your blog name or not include it in comments, it has a trigger word – Anthony
**************************************************************************************************
No wonder I am always “awaiting moderation”. After being a moderate “Mike” for 70 years.
REPLY: No, assmart – Anthony
What about being able to reply directly to a post right below it, so you can read it as you are writing to said poster, It might narrow answers and stay on subject a bit more and you do not have to go to the bottom of the page (If that is already possible me bad , I don’t see the way to do it) Thanks Anthony for a great board I (shut in ) enjoy it immensely.
tobias, that’s called “threading”, and with WordPress it frequently gets all balled up. Especially if a deletion is necessary.
This is the way to go. I have often wondered why long time commenters need to go into moderation? Some sites do it if you have more than 1 link.
How about having the ‘Report comment’ near the comment if it is possible? I see it on other sites.
No wonder I am always “awaiting moderation”. After being a moderate “Mike” for 70 years.
REPLY: No, assmart – Anthony
***************************************************************************************************************
I didn’t know “Strongasanoxandnearlyassmart” – my blog is “Strong as an ox and nearly as smart” – appeared anywhere. That’s the phrase Pop would say when people complimented him on his big sons. Since I don’t want to change, i’ll just have to accept being moderated.
Anthony, not long ago you were accused of censoring comments. This new and easier comment policy flies in the face of such accusations??? Just a note. The second millionth comment is just around the corner, like my almost 1 millionth comment. 🙂
[Reply: Chief, you missed it by that much! — mod.]
Well I go to some threaded sites, and it works very well. Some let you post pictures. That’s great, because I can get out my camera, and macro-lens, and post graphs right out of books.
That would be what I would wish for. It can take a thousand words to describe a picture, and not being able to show data graphs to readers is a big handicap. But I do appreciate that it can also create problems. I can live with what you choose.
And Chasmod, yes I do notice that you wake up a lot more quickly. GES
george e. smith says (April 10, 2013 at 5:09 pm): “Well I go to some threaded sites, and it works very well. Some let you post pictures.”
=======================================================
You can upload you picture to a file hosting site and post the link here.
tobias says (April 10, 2013 at 4:51 pm): “What about being able to reply directly to a post right below it, so you can read it as you are writing to said poster, It might narrow answers and stay on subject a bit more and you do not have to go to the bottom of the page”
===========================================================
This is a very bad option. The chronological order of comments is better, because if you visit the thread again you can easily read new comments without going through the whole stuff again.
If you allowed comment deletion for 5-10 minutes after submission you would provide the ability to do edits. If we made a mistake we could copy the comment body, delete it, paste into the comment box, make necessary correction and post a new comment.
Anthony and crew: This is a great site, and I check it several times per day. Your list of guest authors is getting bigger and better. Thanks for the great job.
Ah, keep in mind that if you speed up commenting, the conversation changes and grows in size/noise-to-signal…etc…
Sometimes it’s best that things stay in a hopper for a few minutes, let people cool off.