Flame Commenter: To Deal or Not to Deal

Few days back, I was 'invited into a war zone,' due to my previous article; "Masters In Disguise, Again?" I normally not too bother to let any comments listed within my blog. Say anything you like as I won't bother. To ease the effort, I don't even request any email address from the commenter. Heck, this is a blog and of course it generates any kind of comment.

Surprisingly, I found some of them are stubborn enough to understand. This is internet and people can write anything if not everything. When a company sells products and you gave bad review on it, does it mean you will be held accountable? A product doesn't sell for several reasons and there must be reasons when we gave negative thoughts.

This is, after all, a blog. As this blog is related to personal views, there's nothing hinder me from doing that. If I can say that the current government doesn't perform, what more if it is a product? I believe in democracy and freedom of speech. I have a disclaimer to back me up but some of them are too lazy to look around.

Oh well, for those who fall into such category, let me put it at ease.

"What I said in the comments section may valid for today but it doesn't necessarily reflect for tomorrow. I consider this a necessary consequence of having an open mind. Feel free to challenge me, disagree with me, or tell me I'm completely nuts in the comments section of each entry, but I reserve the right to delete any comment for any reason whatsoever (abusive, profane, rude, anonymous comments or SPAM) - so keep it polite, please."

While blogging has always been a medium where people don't mind a little vigorous debate - it's also got a history of flaring up into personal attack and flaming from time to time. It's easy to do - you read something that you strongly disagree with and write a comment in the heat of the moment. Your comment is misinterpreted and read by another emotional person who responds - things escalate and suddenly things get personal. No one really wins in these exchanges - in fact more often than not both people come out of it with slightly tattered egos and reputations.

So I did take some safety measures. I deleted some comments which I consider USELESS and doesn't reflect the overall point of discussion. Oh, when the commenter made himself like an idiot, the chances are even greater. There's a stubborn minority that are rude, intentionally provocative, or just plain abusive.

For those who love to post flaming comments, a general note applies. Behave yourself when in one's territory. Heck, even forums employ moderators to moderate our posts, right?

I wonder if Symantec is going to sue me since I hate their products so much.