Media Watchdog
Yes, I trashed your comment!

Yes, I trashed your comment!

It’s a ‘thankless job’. Those in for recognition and appreciation are not meant for this work.

Narjis Fatema July 12, 2012

It's 5:00pm. As people sign off from work and head on to meet their friends and family, I switch on the computer and log in to The Express Tribune comments dashboard. My work has just begun.

As cyber space gets ever more populated, you find words, more words and more words floating about. Everyone has something to say; gossip to share; an opinion to express; or just simply babble for sake of babble. It is no different on news websites my friends - you come across a similar craze of words there too.

As soon as a story is published on the site, the readers leap at it, thirsty to get their voice heard. But this voice does not come with an assurance of rationality. Many comments reek of foul language, racist remarks, religious or sectarian intolerance and character assassinations. This is where, as a comment moderator, I happen to enter the scene.

The "Approve" and "Trash" (comments) clicks make up seven of my waking hours six days a week.

Taking approximately over 500 comments every day, I can testify that people in our region simply love to talk. Hundred-word comments are a common occurrence and sometimes we get comments as long as 500 words! My soul blesses those who send in a one liner comment instead of an essay.

Sitting in front of the computer screen, reading all these frustrated rants, troll comments and of course, some value adding informed opinions, leaves you drained of your own thinking capability.

Some days we get to see a lot of scathing and harassing comments, and music is my way to counter the depressing aura that is generated through these comments. As my duty hours end, without delay I will hit the sack.

We have some regular commenters on our website, like Ali Tanoli, Mirza, Observer, Cautious, Zalmai and then some with funny monikers, like TightChuddi, Kaalchakra, Lala Gee, Hunter Punter. These commenters get involved in long discussions every day, not just on one news story but on several at a time. This actually makes me wonder how on earth do they have so much free time at their disposal? Perhaps they are paid for it?

Oh my! The conspiracy theory comments have finally begun to influence me.

Most hot debates in the comments section are on issues like Pak-India conflict, Pak-US ties, terrorist/sectarian attacks, bombshells in local political arena, and, of course, the notorious Veena Malik. Most of the comments that are destined to the trash bin are attacks on religious beliefs, personal attacks on authors, or unnecessarily provocative comments by trolls. These comments, by the way, can take up an entire blog space if I were to just focus on them.

I will share some sour comments that I have come across in the course of my job:

“I have just received a report that these five were uncircumcised, wearing saffron bands and carrying Kingfisher beer bottles in their backpacks” – Zaid Hamid. (Story: Uganda detains five Pakistanis suspected of militant links)

(Trashed)

@elementary “Islam is a rich philosophy with economic, scoial ,political, metaphysical, spiritual, legal and many more aspects.”

Awesome. Oh, and above all, you get in a 100-something pages of the Holy Quran.

Islam is such a fun !!!! (Story: Science for the people)

(Trashed)

Why do we keep this junk in our country? We should get rid of all indian fisherman. (Story: Impending Handover: 315 Indian Fishermen to be released)

(Trashed)

Of course, there comes a good share of some funny comments, too. Here are some of the funniest ones I have had the privilege of moderating:

Party chief Altaf Hussain is expected to make a “thought-provoking address" to women. In order to get through this trauma, women at the jalsa would certainly need to grow some balls.

(Trashed)

Bra bomb attack just sounds too funny. Let's hope they can keep these Bra members in check and stop them from making more mischief. Let's ban Bra for life! (Story: BRA bomb attacks on police van leaves four injured)

(Trashed)

Comments tell you a lot about the mindset of your readers as well─ more so on controversial topics.

When it comes to religion and women issues, you find the conservative side dominant but on sectarian stories, unexpectedly, you find an overall tolerant side at display. Often commenters also send in corrections and suggestions which, when forwarded to the newspaper team, helps improve its service. Moreover, the debate that is generated leads to healthy exchange of ideas, such as the discourse below shows:

(Story: Not in my name)

Max: Yes! Democracy is a process with responsibilities on the shoulders of each and every member of the society. It functions if allowed to do so, but if it is a war of personalities, or party vendettas, then I have some reservation about its survival in Pakistan.

afzaalkhan: I submit you should ask ur elected representatives to obey the law and they won’t be thrown out.

gp65: @afzaalkhan: “I submit you should ask ur elected representatives to obey the law and they won’t be thrown out.”

Well since law is what we are concerned about
– the direction to write the letter was against the constitution
– the decision to ignore speakr’s mandate was against the constitution
– the decision to dismiss the Prime Minister who claerly HAD not lost the vote of confidence (the process mandated to kick out Prime Minister before his term in the COnstitution), hence dismissing him was also against the constitution.

Not following CJ’s orders is NOT the same thing as not following the law.

All this is extremely intense sometimes, and builds a psychological wave of pressure which is further exacerbated by the fact that it’s a do-from-home-job. No interaction with people you work for and the lack of emotional bonding with your workplace sets in feelings of being alienated.

As the title of Charlie Warzel’s article in Adweek conveys, it’s a ‘thankless job’. Those in for recognition and appreciation are not meant for this work. This is the absolute truth about this job of being behind the page at all times and taking heat from the readers for not approving their comments; I do have to read them before we trash the comments after all.

But I’ll have to admit, do-from-home-jobs have their positives as well. I get to dine with my family every night; I am able to watch my favourite shows on TV in tidbits as I can't be away form the screen for too long; and I can save the travel fare which we all would like to do in this age of inflation.

What needs to be kept in mind is that the anonymity factor of the virtual world has the potential to take things out of hands, and hence, comment moderation is very necessary to keep things under control.

P.S. It's Ms Comment Moderator.

Read more by Narjis here or follow her on Twitter @Narjis_Fatema

WRITTEN BY:
Narjis Fatema A student of Mass Communication at Karachi University who Tweets @Narjis_Fatema (https://twitter.com/Narjis_Fatema)

The views expressed by the writer and the reader comments do not necassarily reflect the views and policies of the Express Tribune.

More by this writer

COMMENTS (72)

nylakhan | 12 years ago | Reply its so true that if you are trying to comment more than one time for the same blog , it does go away , regardless even if its a one liner or not i have tried so many times to help pppl out there for jobs and stuff but it wont let me.

Muhammad Yaqub | 12 years ago | Reply Sensible thing to do is to just run a computer program which will automatically separate comments with dirty words. As far as comic comments are concerned, those should be the first ones to be allowed !! Are we not bombarded daily with enough serious stuff ??

VIEW MORE COMMENTS

hariharmani | 12 years ago | Reply Narjis Fatema,I hope I got your name right and hope you will not trash it.It is out of the topic,i thought I should address you as many things get trashed for not very good reason.Islam has many progressive looking thinkers,for example,most people think Emperor Jahangir was a addict and a drunk.One look at his auto bio-graphy will reveal he was very bright guy even for early 17th century,by reading Tuzk-e- Jahangiri.I'm Hindu,normally I should have little or no interest in such book,.When something kicked my curiosity ,I read some portion of his auto -biography.It stunned me.He praised his father so one thing led to others and I read Akbar-Nama and A.Fazal.his minister.They were so open minded free wheeler and intellect,it floored me.How we in 21 century instead of going progressing have gone back word and intolerant.?Why and how and when?See we think,oh,why would any one be interested.?Your Lahore was Jahangir.s favorite place,he touched every garden and every stone,he is the only Mughal Emperor who is buried in to days Pakistan.So also liberal Dara Sikoeh.You ought to ask your esteemed columnist to write about your great sons of your past.You give way to much space to bigots and hate mongers.People got to understand great soul like Akbar died very early by simple runs(di-reai),it could be fixed to-day in America or any where by a simple dose of imodium,over the counter cheap pill,and Akbar died a miserable painful death so also Shivaji at age 49.Spinoza the great thinker was lost at 44 so was Franz Kalfa at 43.You can really do yoman service to your not so well informed folks by stroking their curiosity,even if you start humble,in time you will reach critical mass,that's how England from Henry the 8th a despot if there was one, has become a liberal democracy DO, NOT SELL YOUR FOLKS CHEAP,they have great potential.I thought I should write(appeal) to you.Good day.

Zeta | 12 years ago | Reply Well this is your job and you get paid for it. cut the whining or find new job

Ali | 12 years ago | Reply You have a tough job. I agree. I sometimes comment knowing that it will be trashed. I comment anyway.

Lala Gee | 12 years ago | Reply Even here my comment got trashed. lets see if it is my statement (completely taken out) or this fact was the reason not to approve it here and in the op-ed. @jssidhoo: *"Khaled Ahmed sahib so much honesty would be difficult for the Zaid Hamids to digest."* ["Report of Amnesty International for year 2012"][1]. **Jammu and Kashmir** "Impunity prevailed for violations in Kashmir, including unlawful killings, torture and the disappearance of thousands of people since 1989 during the armed conflict there. A majority of the killings of more than 100 youths by the security forces during protests in 2010 also went unpunished. In March, 15 years after the murder of human rights lawyer Jaleel Andrabi, the state authorities urged the federal government to extradite Major Avtar Singh, charged with the killing, from the USA to face trial in a Srinagar court. The federal authorities had yet to respond. In September, the state human rights commission identified over 2,700 unmarked graves in north Kashmir. Despite the local police’s claims that these contained bodies of “unidentified militants”, the commission identified 574 bodies as those of disappeared locals and asked the state authorities to use DNA profiling and other forensic techniques to identify the remaining bodies. The authorities had yet to act on this recommendation." [1]: http://www.amnesty.org/en/region/india/report-2012

gp65 | 12 years ago | Reply @Zeeshan: I am NOT ayesha_khan. You misinterpreted my response. Since you accused Ayesha of parroting Americans, I wanted to make sure that you would not accuse me of doing the same for reinforcing that very same issue. @tightest chuddi and loose pants My answer is for you also.

bigsaf | 12 years ago | Reply There is a bit of frustration on the inconsistency on comments being posted or not posted, and when comments get cut short or edited. I've had posts where the word 'Kharjite' was edited out, while elsewhere it gets posted in whole, or sometimes not at all. This needs uniform improvement. But on the whole I very much appreciate the articles and moderating here, as it wasn't as stifling as Dawn's editors and moderators were, who were quicker to censor or control on touchy, controversial subjects, even though things needed to be said to challenge prejudiced majority perceptions and rampant misinformation. Its a reason why this news website is now my primary news for Pak as compared to Dawn traditionally, which I still visit time to time and respect.

bigsaf | 12 years ago | Reply @SaQiB:

now i know who deletes my comments over MQM and the Shiite community…………. don’t worry, i won’t kill ya although i DO get annoyed sometimes cuz i do not use obscene language

Guess that be a relief for the moderator to be spared from violence. Obscene language is not the only dis-qualifier. Given the topics you mention, the reason your comments would most likely be censored/deleted/trashed is under the categories as listed by the author:

Many comments reek of foul language, racist remarks, religious or sectarian intolerance and character assassinations. This is where, as a comment moderator, I happen to enter the scene.

hariharmani | 12 years ago | Reply @gp65: They mostly are,TOI is for birds.

hariharmani | 12 years ago | Reply @Critical: I often wondered too,Riversechakra(I call him that),no one can be this off the rocker,as his English is way too good to be ignorant.,ill informed fanatic.He has rhyme and reason for his madness..I ignore ILA ILONAT(read back word for real name.)I find these two guys hard to fathom.But life always throws curve at us when we least expects it.Then there are guys like Blackjack,Max,Ejjaj,LonelibralPK.,a delight and lucid in articulation and clarity.You and Cynical are not bad either.All in all,I'm glad I discovered E.T. late,but it is better to be late than never.You make my retired life in USA,next best to living over there. Now,.I'm telling lie there(Going too far),that is not true.!I can not go that far.that is C---p.You know it as well as me.Good day.

hariharmani | 12 years ago | Reply @Nandita.: How about the comment India/Pakistan should kiss and make up and sing Kumbaiya.I was expecting that.Never mind.

hariharmani | 12 years ago | Reply So it you Najris F.I have to thank for all the trashing of my brain wave.I'm only kidding,if it is ,who has let my comment see the light of the day.I,m sorry sometime I write long,for I admit,I shall make it brief,so how is this one?Thanks once again.You guys at Express Tribune have done a great service to your budding democracy,I have no hesitation to say,you are one the best in world,but the best of its kind in South Asia.I'm not saying this,it is from the top of my heart,or is it bottom.Well done.Good day

Parvez | 12 years ago | Reply .....if only you could lighten up a bit and try develop a sense for different types of humour. Life is not only about serious stuff.

trollol | 12 years ago | Reply I appreciate it :D hehhe I don't expect my outrageously dumb and stupid comments to go up all the time :) sometimes I am quite surprised to see them there too..I only felt bad when my comment which ripped ali azmat apart jovially was edited (with all the insulting parts trashed) :( I'd rather you trash the whole thing rather than editing it..but please do carry on with your awesome work

Uzair | 12 years ago | Reply Why don't you folks use decent commenting systems e.g. discuss or more convenient openID (or Facebook login). This anonymous posting makes it much more horrible. Trust me get better commenting system and save your brain!

Misbah (Comment Mod) | 12 years ago | Reply Written very well Narjis. I agree with @Huda, it is definitely a VERY interesting job, being Psychology grad myself; opinions of people, their thinking, their assumptions can be the most interesting thing for me. Reading all the psychology involved in every comment throughout the day, opinion of people, leg-pulling and trolling comments at some point in time do give in a bit of laugh. No matter how much we might want to approve the "particular trolling" comment for people to laugh over it, but WE CAN'T, and that is our job which we have to do with all our responsibility. Having a natural attribute towards having our personal opinions, we do generally make an effort to not bring in those opinion while doing our job. Hence, being neutral is the only trait we practice; and on that too we are sometimes questioned :D to which I don't mind. Considering the lengthy comments and comments coming in at the rate of 3comments per minute makes it bit dry at times. But racing with the time to clear comments within an hour of being posted makes the work more challenging and interesting. Considering that we work from home, load-shedding and internet connection problem are the issue we sometimes face which results in delayed moderation; along-with this a gap on an hour or so between the shifts also results in awaited moderation. For which we try to speed up the moderation. I know after this paragraph I will be pointed out for having such a long comment :D but trying to reply to all that has been pointed above in the comments. We and our team sometimes do recheck the comments on website again, which is also an activity to check the work of comment mods. Hence super-moderation is not always practiced but can happen when people points out the trolling comment or when the team come across any such comment which should not get approved. SO WE ARE CHECKED for our work as well. We do "TRASH" the comment but at the same time we do "APPROVE" the comment, and the ratio of approving the comment is always higher than trashing of the comment. We respect people opinions and that is the reason there is a comment section at the end of every article. But if the comments is a trolling comment, agenda oriented, biased or disrespecting anyone or their faith is rejected because approving such negative comments destroys the healthy conversation and increases animosity. Since everyone is in favor of PEACE, we have the same approach for our "comment board". So if the comment has a valid point plus no abusing being done within that comment, there is no way for that comment to get trashed :)

tightest chuddi and loose pants | 12 years ago | Reply @Zeeshan: that definitely proves gp65 and ayesha r the same person.gp65 must have forgotten to change his moniker while replying to you. wonder if blackjack is a different person.

Saeen | 12 years ago | Reply Saeen kay Comment bhi Saeen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sidewinder | 12 years ago | Reply off late ,ET has started censoring too much of comments.even some of my comments which were plain facts were censored.i specially flabbergasted when i am replying to some one and i am shot down by some Almighty sitting in ET office.I also hold some of the commentators like Mirza in high esteem.he seems quiet mature and genuinely concerned about Pakistan.some of we Indians sometimes go over the top(i am an Indian),which is also the case with Pakistani commentators.as for as paid comments are concerned i wish i was paid.if any one has any idea how to make money for writing comments on a news site ,could he share this thing with me?i also would like to thank the author for being patient with commentators.as you would gain in experience you definitely would learn the tricks of the trade.

Hareem | 12 years ago | Reply I'll make this short and sweet for you Narjis! Thanks for writing this excellent post! Some of the comments are just classic, and like you, I also wonder about the kind of time people have at their hands. That said, I personally would thrash comments written in SMS lingo with total disregard for basic spelling, grammar and sentence structure. Yes, it sounds snobbish but such comments are more of an eyesore than anything else!

Shyam | 12 years ago | Reply Moderator, thanks for proving my previous comment right in this very section

Baba Ji | 12 years ago | Reply well I dont want to act and sound Carl Sagan but most of my comments zoom past her head and are ultimately trashed :) please give room to sarcasm too .... Ciao

Awais | 12 years ago | Reply @Ayesha: I bow to your superior awesomeness.

um | 12 years ago | Reply wow!!! you have only single post of ET other than this and that made so much tired to write up this?

um | 12 years ago | Reply i have a solution for this.. Stop Blogging!

TheTruth | 12 years ago | Reply Less talk, more sandwiches.

Raw is War | 12 years ago | Reply nooooo

Zeeshan | 12 years ago | Reply I don't think Ali Tanoli and Mirza are paid. If they were, shame on whoever who paid them. Ali Tanoli speaks his mind; so allow him. It does not take a few seconds to recognize that Cautious,Observer, bruteforce, blackjack, babloo, ayeshakhan,gp65 are all Indians. However, once a while I am not sure if these people are truly multiple individuals or the same individuals. Take this for an example: (my reply to ayeshakhan but It was answered by gp65 as if he/she were ayesha_khan). Zeeshan Jul 10, 2012 - 10:37PM Reply ayesha_khan, So, Soviet imperialism was not part of it? Parroting American perspective and ignoring the subaltern voice of men and women who stood up to resist an empire speak volume to how past is being presented in today’s monotonous world. gp65 Jul 11, 2012 - 4:38AM Reply @Zeeshan: “So, Soviet imperialism was not part of it? Parroting American perspective and ignoring the subaltern voice of men and women who stood up to resist an empire speak volume to how past is being presented in today’s monotonous world.” Both US and USSR were imperialistic in their own ways. Pakistan could have remained non-aligned but chose from the start of its history to get aligned with US for the reasons I stated. I am not parroting American perspective. On the other hand, you definitely appear to be parroting the perspective that the deep state taught you.

Huda | 12 years ago | Reply I read express tribune daily but never have I read others' comments or posted one myself but the nature of this article made me do both. I really was curious as to see what people would comment about their comments. I sympathize with you too but to me, still, your job seems very interesting.

Sunflower | 12 years ago | Reply lolzzz, I thoroughly enjoyed reading dis one,,,, haha" dey are actually paid" ,,,,you caught dem probably

Shyam | 12 years ago | Reply I have notice a couple of my comments did make it through and then mysteriously disappeared after some time. Is there a "super-moderator" as well?

Sane | 12 years ago | Reply Wherever must be guidelines for those who post comments

Imran Con | 12 years ago | Reply I get over my comments being rejected in a short amount of time. In fact, I'm even well aware I can be overly harsh and aggressive or a little insulting. Believe it or not, it's not intentional around 90% of the time. Though the 10% is most certainly the when I see something so dumb it gives me a headache. No regrets, either. It's just the way I am. Sometimes I consider it a personality flaw, sometimes I like the trait. Regardless, I'm not surprised some of my comments would get rejected due to it. But, I really wish you guys would just reject the whole thing or let it through. Those edits you do are beyond annoying since it sometimes butchers the comment to the point of throwing the context off or even gets rid of the main point the comment is trying to make. Offline I don't censor my own thoughts. I either say them as I mean them or I don't say them at all. Online is no different and I can't imagine you could find a reason to reject such a request. After all, it's even less work for you. I know I'm not alone in regard to being a little annoyed by it as well.

AD | 12 years ago | Reply You are doing great.Blv me i come on ET just for comments.More then writer i want to understand readers.well done.

Ayesha | 12 years ago | Reply Heyyy Narjis I have a question!! You get a lot of author bashing comments too? Is it possible to see them sometime? :D :S

Ayesha | 12 years ago | Reply Every single comment I have made till date on ET has been published. Wow Im lucky... or just too awesome! :-D fingers crossed on this one!

geeko | 12 years ago | Reply Ch. Allah Dad, the lone PML-N voter under God's blue skies, definitely deserved a mention as a "regular poster". Sounds like a fun job otherwise.

Rehan | 12 years ago | Reply That Kingfisher comment – superb! Regards, Rehan

gp65 | 12 years ago | Reply Pleasantly surprised to see my comment shown as an example of 'healthy debate'. But as Faraz Talat mentions, I have many comments withheld and I cannot figure out why. I never make personal attacks - only refer to ideas. I fI contradict an individual I either provide supporting data OR at least logic. Never have made statements against any religion - yet 30-40% of my comments get screened out. (In case you were wondering I do not get paid for my comments). I do not even see a pattern in what is rejected and what is published. Still overall I must admit that the ET forum does allow a healthy debate and I much prefer it to Times of India (I am an Indian BTW) where unmoderated comments can sometimes be downright bigoted and nasty.

Awais | 12 years ago | Reply How about a comment voting/rating system in which the other users can vote up or down and the ones which are voted down get flagged as spam. ..In other words, what Youtube uses.

TheTruth | 12 years ago | Reply Great to know you blocked my comment! It lets me know you read it :D

faraz | 12 years ago | Reply Why have you started censoring the expression 'strategic asset'?

Yuri Kondratyuk | 12 years ago | Reply @Zaid Hamid and @elementary were genuinely funny

kashaf | 12 years ago | Reply I was going to take pity on you and not comment, but isn't it so much fun to trouble the person more? :p

mr. righty rightist | 12 years ago | Reply “I have just received a report that these five were uncircumcised, wearing saffron bands and carrying Kingfisher beer bottles in their backpacks” – Zaid Hamid. That was me. hehehe! Anyways, next time you see a comment from Mr.Righty Rightist. Approve it immediately. Also, mark my words, soon, there will be thousands of comments, addressed directly to Narjis Fatema.

SaQiB | 12 years ago | Reply Alright........now i know who deletes my comments over MQM and the Shiite community............. don't worry, i won't kill ya although i DO get annoyed sometimes cuz i do not use obscene language............what i hate the most is when u cut my comment short... effectively defacing the whole context :-/

Nandita. | 12 years ago | Reply @Faraz Talat: i agree. i've come to admire ET and a lot of pakistanis who blog here.it's commendable that so many pakistanis are gutsy enough to write freely about their views.i often wonder if extremists moniter such blogs and newspapers.but so many people here speak their minds inspite of being aware of the implications.i admire the editors for being relatively unbiased. reading et blogs is a lot of fun

Babloo | 12 years ago | Reply Thanks for the narrative on "a day in the life of ET moderator". You said "I am able to watch my favourite shows on TV in tidbits as I can’t be away form the screen for too long", now I know, why some of my comments take so long to be posted, when they are not 'trashed'. Thank You.

Faraz Talat | 12 years ago | Reply Haris Javed, That's kinda ignorant. Not all women are fragile beings who burst into tears the moment a troll posts something offensive about them. I'm confident they're all mature enough to handle a bunch of offensive comments without being permanently traumatized. . Jamal, ET has plenty of atheist and agnostic commenters. I think ET does a far better job at preserving free speech than most of its rivals groups. It's not perfect, but still..

Nandita. | 12 years ago | Reply It was fun reading this! The onslaught of comments on this one should be fun to read as well!

Hmmm | 12 years ago | Reply @Haris Javed: What a bizarre comment. Why do you imagine a moderator with different genitalia would moderate differently? (I am very curious to know if this comment makes it :) Moderator, please note the language is in fact quite kosher, and not what I initially had in mind. I've cleaned it up quite a bit!).

Haris Javed | 12 years ago | Reply now i have some serious reservations about the policy of ET regarding comment moderation. Earlier ET expressed its moderation policy through a staff of two girls: http://blogs.tribune.com.pk/story/10043/who-trashed-my-comment-done/ and now again a lady is doing the job! Doesn't ET have any male staff doing this job??? considering the level of trolling and resulting mess.. . there must be some male staff involved in the process as well just to keep things in balance and avoid biased trashing of public opinions.. .

Ali | 12 years ago | Reply I hope ET also has a moderator for checking OP-EDs and Blogs.....BTW it seems atm u dnt v one!

madiha akhtar | 12 years ago | Reply A tough job indeed and I really appreciate it..because reading irrational comments do consume one's energy :)

Hmmm | 12 years ago | Reply My favourite paper of all is the UK's Guardian. I think I read it more for the comments than the articles themselves. I think they are a great benchmark to look at. They permit commenters their jokes (like the BRA one for example) and even the ones with strong language as long as its not a personal attack. Also PLEASE note that the smartest comments are often the longest. There should be no word limit. Please make the effort to read them.

Zain Hassan Zaidi | 12 years ago | Reply No problem i completely understand how tough it is to hold your job these days. You are just an employee trained to follow the orders. So is me but i am glad i have to answer a bunch of people however you have to write these blogs to confess. No hard feelings :)

Loneliberal PK | 12 years ago | Reply These are blogs! You don't expect the discussions in the comment section to sound like verbal jousting in a 19th century English tearoom. That example of a civilized discourse that you gave is great, and I do wish the level of discussion would always be like that. However, the discussions on such forums are expected to be casual. This is not a congregation of writers and professors, it's a forum of ordinary people, some of whom can come off as unrefined...and they're allowed to be that way! I'm not suggesting that your work is unimportant. Clearly, it's vital! I'm just saying you may have to ease up a little bit, or it may very well hurt your own readership. And boo me if you must, but I thought that kingfisher comment was rather funny.

PostMan | 12 years ago | Reply Do you usually approve if scripture is quoted?

Iram | 12 years ago | Reply worth reading.

ChaoticOne | 12 years ago | Reply Can anybody else see the irony! The comments that were not worthy of being allowed as comments are now posted in an article!

Tanzeel | 12 years ago | Reply Moderation has always been a controversial job. To survive in organization you need delete comments even if they are justified. So its not fault, this is what your work is all about. I would only suggest you find better job.

Jamal Khan | 12 years ago | Reply Only the comments by religious people get through.The moderators let their personal bias in favor of religion cloud their judgement on what goes through or not.Comments from a secular,rationalist,atheist point of view never get through,no matter that there's no profanity in them.Personal prejudice in favour of theists is reflected in which comments are allowed to go through.

Faraz Talat | 12 years ago | Reply Half of these comments actually don't deserve to be blocked. And I'm quite certain you handpicked the worst ones to prove your point. One needs to differentiate moderation from plain moral policing. While comments like the one on the BRA attack are clearly puerile, they needn't be deleted. At times, commenting on ET is like rolling the dice. My stronger comments often get through, but the milder ones get blocked. It would be nicer if the moderators just stick to deleting ad hominem attacks, incendiary speech (not just harsh criticism), and posts that are simply unreadable. Other than that, your job is half complete with the disclaimer that the reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of Express Tribune.

Zeeshan Sheikh | 12 years ago | Reply Now I know who is the person who blocks my comment. Next time whenever my comment is not being approved I will remember you in my "Best wishes".

Sabeer Lodhi | 12 years ago | Reply Good read! I can only imagine what your job must be like. You better brace yourself for the unleashed verbal diarrhea of trolls here too... unless you plan to moderate them hint "WHAT RUBBISH! TOTAL TIME WASTE! ET YOUR STANDARDS ARE FALLING! "Bas! Now I'm unliking ET's page"

Ayesha Ahmad | 12 years ago | Reply Interesting read XD

Hashmi | 12 years ago | Reply Dear Approver, Please approve all my Raja Rental comments. I am never abusive, racist or of any such sort. To help in your work you can rent an approver. Mr. Raja will help in your rental needs. Long Live Rental.

Donku | 12 years ago | Reply so its u, hmmm. and i thought u were a good girl...3&88%&$$@%^&*

Ali | 12 years ago | Reply Be Ready, Your this post going to be inundated by comments very soon :P You yourself increased your work..

Anon | 12 years ago | Reply just limit the number of characters ppl can post, in order to remain succinct. as for the discussions, shouldn't they be for discussions boards/forum as opposed to comments. i swear some ppl are just plain thick. you know you you are!! kudos on the job well done!

Noman Ansari | 12 years ago | Reply I think someone should introduce you to 4Chan.

Replying to X

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.

For more information, please see our Comments FAQ

Yes, I trashed your comment!

More by this writer

FOLLOW US