A Note on Comments and Comment Moderation

I started this site in 1999. I did it with a baby and a 1200 baud modem. I built Oscarwatch.com that would eventually build a strong readership. That was before there were even blogs. At some point, we got a forum. The forum took on a life of its own and became came a powerful force such that when people thought of Oscarwatch they thought of the forums. I needed to build a brand that was representative of what I wanted to write, not what was on the forums. But in 2011, a war broke out between me and the forums, or rather, the forums and me. I seem to attract the meanest, nastiest people on the internet. I do not know why. It is the nature of the thing.

After that fight, I dumped the forums. They eventually created their own website called awardswatch, among other Oscar sites. Blog software allowed for comments. Those of us who ran them had a choice to moderate comments or not. Mostly I have chosen to not moderate them.

Ryan Adams here was, for a time, keeping an eye out for them. But he is busy with his own life and essentially we both allowed weeds to grow in the garden. We have had a hard time maintaining freedom for readers to express themselves and managing the nonstop vitriol we both get from readers here. Or anyone who writes for this site – they take heat here and on social media for things I say. Or sometimes things they say.

However, the comments are a courtesy, not an entitlement. It is not a free speech issue if you are the person who controls the content of a site and the comments contribute to the content of the site. The New York Times has always had a strict moderation policy, which means the comments they approve always add to the site.

I haven’t read the comments here lately but I just went through them a while ago and I was somewhat disturbed by what I saw. It seemed that there are quite a few commenters who are angry about the content we all here provide FOR FREE. And that means they seem to think it’s okay to use the comment section as a dumping ground. But guess what? It’s not okay. People have a right to read the site. They can comment if the comment is constructive. But otherwise, the meanness just brings the whole site down.

Maybe some sites like and depend on negative comments to keep things interesting or to keep readers loyal. I do not understand how Jeff Wells at Hollywood Elsewhere can tolerate his own comment section. All they seem to do is drag him down and drag down the whole experience of the site. People who might offer decent comments are often shouted down and and mocked to the point where they no longer even want to comment.

Well, the days of my site turning into a dumping ground in the comments are over. The comments will now be moderated. I am not even sure I will offer them on my own pieces. I might. I might not. We’ll have to see how it goes. In general, though, it works like this: I work hard every day of the week to keep this site running. I have been doing this for 22 years. I have a great staff of writers here who contribute, and are also on call almost every day to do proofing and post award announcement or comments.

The last thing I’m going to do all of that for is have to endure a sewer at the bottom of each post. If that makes the site more boring, then so be it. Then it’s more boring. Nothing is worth taking that level of abuse. Nothing. There are so many Oscar sites online that anyone here who doesn’t like the content can simply go somewhere else and read and comment there. Because people have nothing better to do, plenty of forums are solely dedicated to hating on ME. So there you go, friends, you can get it ALL out. All of that mommy hate you can splatter it all over the wall and see what sticks.

You know, like this:

But for now, we will be moderating comments until such time as they change and become worthy of being published. Of course, many commenters here offer constructive, interesting comments worthy of publishing. And they will be published. The rest will go in the garbage where they belong.