On anonymous comments

[ciphergoth]

(Unrelated note: LJ is under a denial-of-service attack last I heard. Things may be slower than usual. I hope more net vandals start turning up mysteriously dead in unpleasant ways.)

Inspired by events in faerierhona's journal.

Question: when people get abusive comments in their journal, how come they don't just delete them?

So far I haven't had abusive comments here, but I've seen it happen in other journals. I can see some reasons why those people don't want to delete those comments - I'm guessing that part of it is a "standing up to it" thing - but that I can stand up to it isn't in doubt, it's whether it will benefit me or anyone I care about to do so instead of silently deleting it.

If I think someone's just trolling my journal or trying to get a rise - anonymously or otherwise - I'll not bother to reply, I'll just delete the comments. I'm only interested in justifying myself to strangers in so far as either I genuinely hope either to bring or gain enlightenment or it will entertain me to do so.

As a matter of general policy, I leave anonymous posting on in my journal, and I have IP logging off. But this is so that people who don't yet have LJs can comment, and so my friends can tell me interesting things under cover of anonymity if they need to - I've seen and made interesting use of this possibility so I'm open to it.

Comments

deletion

[countess-sophia.livejournal.com]

For me it depends what the nature of the comment is. I would delete something that had something grossly offensive, say homophobia, in it. If it was just rude or impertinent I usually wouldn't bother. I've got a thick skin to the antics and insults of trolls and I've had a bit of experience of pond slime me sending me bile out of the blue (due to my website). Fuck 'em.

Soph