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ColumbiaMagazine.com Policy on Comments

If you have something constructive to say about an issue that affects Columbia, and take the time to write it thoughtfully and thoroughly, we'll make every effort to get it in front of our readers, regardless of your politics.

However, the hosting and management of instantly-published, off-the-cuff discussions of every article and survey on the site is proving beyond ColumbiaMagazine's resources.


First concern is security

Our first concern is security. Allowing users to write data to the site is much tougher to secure than just allowing users to read the site. Some of the more advanced features of the comments system have already been disabled for this reason, and more have long been planned to be phased out as previously-scheduled updates take place over the next year.

Second issue is misuse of comments

The second issue is misuse of the comments. We get about 3 times as many spam comments as legitimate comments. These promote international web sites for everything from pyramid schemes to illicit images and random body enhancements, and they've come in by the thousands. We've tried to catch as many as possible, and hopefully most ColumbiaMagazine.com readers aren't even aware of the problem, but it's a drain on resources. We prefer to spend time improving the site for Columbians, not policing it for off-color ads from international entrepreneurs.

Even if we are not the host, we want to promote open discussion

However, even if we don't host them personally, we do certainly want to promote open discussion of the issues that affect the community. We're looking into Yahoo Groups and Google Groups, among others, as potential homes for such discussions. If we find the right site, we'll point our readers to the appropriate forum for these discussions, and let somebody else do the heavy lifting for security and spam-control.


This story was posted on 2006-01-20 07:26:01
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Contact us: Columbia Magazine and columbiamagazine.com are published by Linda Waggener and Pen Waggener, PO Box 906, Columbia, KY 42728.
Phone: 270.403.0017


Please use our contact page, or send questions about technical issues with this site to webmaster@columbiamagazine.com. All logos and trademarks used on this site are property of their respective owners. All comments remain the property and responsibility of their posters, all articles and photos remain the property of their creators, and all the rest is copyright 1995-Present by Columbia Magazine. Privacy policy: use of this site requires no sharing of information. Voluntarily shared information may be published and made available to the public on this site and/or stored electronically. Anonymous submissions will be subject to additional verification. Cookies are not required to use our site. However, if you have cookies enabled in your web browser, some of our advertisers may use cookies for interest-based advertising across multiple domains. For more information about third-party advertising, visit the NAI web privacy site.