An open letter to the site Admins
Hi @Andrew and @Nuno. I know I've been openly disparaging about changes to this site in the past, and I'm sure you dislike me for it, but today I'm trying to be constructive.
The way that censorship of comments has been implemented is backfiring and causing rifts. I know of at least one example recently where someone blocked a friend, because that friend didn't respond to a heartfelt comment. The issue was the OP never saw the comment, because the censorship algorithm made it invisible to everyone except the comment's author.
I had a similar situation myself today, thinking someone who I get along with was ignoring my comment, only to find that my comment had also been completely hidden (bizarrely, at that).
By all means, make potentially offensive comments require clicking on to be seen, but hiding them completely (while not making their author aware) is not the best way to achieve your goal of avoiding bullying behaviour.
I hope you will consider this change, and I sincerely believe it will improve the site, and the sense of community that most of us wish to see.
The way that censorship of comments has been implemented is backfiring and causing rifts. I know of at least one example recently where someone blocked a friend, because that friend didn't respond to a heartfelt comment. The issue was the OP never saw the comment, because the censorship algorithm made it invisible to everyone except the comment's author.
I had a similar situation myself today, thinking someone who I get along with was ignoring my comment, only to find that my comment had also been completely hidden (bizarrely, at that).
By all means, make potentially offensive comments require clicking on to be seen, but hiding them completely (while not making their author aware) is not the best way to achieve your goal of avoiding bullying behaviour.
I hope you will consider this change, and I sincerely believe it will improve the site, and the sense of community that most of us wish to see.
