Your comments and the rules of the house

Ask any publisher and they'll tell you one of the hardest choices they have to make is how to handle viewer/reader/listener feedback in their publication. As tough as it is for traditional media (newspapers, TV, radio), it's more difficult for online publishers, because of the real-time nature of the Internet, and because an online site's customer's expectations are for immediate gratification.

What am I getting at? Now that this little blog is taking comments, and now that it's getting a few (thank you!), the question is how to handle the ones I don't like, or the ones I think don't belong on this public exchange of ideas.

So here's what I've come up with. I plan to use a very light touch with your comments. I want your comments to go on this board unfiltered. My number-one goal is to post your words unfiltered and unedited. I will only consider action on those comments that go against a few basic legal, moral and ethical principles. Here are some guidelines:

• I will moderate the posts on this blog. That means I will approve your post before it hits the site. Often, I'm able to do it within an hour or two of you submitting it. (That's one good thing about a web-enabled smartphone with always-on e-mail.) But please remember I have a real job and a real family, and sometimes that takes precedence, as I'm sure you understand.
  
  
• I will not post a comment that libels or slanders another person. This is a non-revenue (thus non-profit) exercise in free speech. I don't have time to mess with lawsuits, attorneys or anything of that sort. If I appear too conversative in my editing on sensitive topics, that's my call. Get your own blog (they're free at blogger.com) if you want to talk trash about somebody in particular.
  
  
• I will remove langauge that is in any way indecent (my definition), but I will try to preserve the rest of the post when possible.
  
  
• I will ask that you structure negative comments in such a way that you're attacking an issue more than a person. If you don't like the choices or the stances that a public figure (namely an elected official) takes, then feel free to call out that person by name, and challenge them on those issues. But I won't allow personal attacks on anything but the issues facing our community.
  
  
• Nothing here should surprise anyone. All I'm asking for is the very basics of decency and good manners and a spirited forum for all our opinions. Again, my utlimate goal is to post your comments, unedited, as fast as I can.