Housekeeping policy
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 
I was interested to read a recent post on ConservativeHome concerning the website's comments policy. Jonathan Isaby, one of the editors, wrote:
ConservativeHome has always prided itself on being an open house for debate ... Of late, there has also been a small minority seeking to turn every other thread into a discussion about one of several pet issues, which is incredibly boring for most readers. We intend to crack down on this and will more regularly delete comments which go off-topic in this way, so please desist from making them in the first place.
Full post HERE.
This struck a chord because one of my pet hates is people writing about their pet subject on a thread that is about something else entirely.
Taking Liberties is a personal blog that reflects my job (which is primarily to do with smoking) but I like to cover other issues too, some of it personal (which I know is a bit self-indulgent but tough.)
Whatever I write, though, some people insist on bringing it back to smoking (or, dare I say, UKIP) which can be incredibly boring, even for me.
Now, I know I can't be too precious about this (I'm grateful, much of the time, for any comments), but traffic to this blog has doubled in recent weeks - most of it due to links with non smoking-related blogs - and I don't want to discourage people who will be driven away if they think it's a single-issue site for single issue fanatics.
If you want to talk about smoking, please restrict your comments to those posts (the majority) that are about smoking otherwise, as Jonathan says on ConHome, "We will ... more regularly delete comments which go off-topic".
Reader Comments (5)
I think ConservativeHome may be guilty of stifling debate.To talk of 'pet subjects' gives carte blanche to the editor to delete anything he feels to be critical of official policy.
Threads do digress which is a natural flow in any conversation and while there are contributors who blame Europe for everything, there are others who blame Labour or the Tories. Many threads go off topic and while I agree that repetition is boring, divergence is not and can lead to a very entertaining blog.
What ConservativeHome suffers from is UKIP'ers trying to entice Tory voters and Labour activists masquerading as right wing bigots to provoke a scandal.
However let me try and fit in.
Last week it was don't talk about Ukip, as if anyone in the right mind would want to anyway!
Now today Big Brother is telling everyone who wishes to post on here, not to deviate from from his original thread.
I don't care a tinker's cuss what ConservativeHome say, and if they delete certain posts, I am interested in what is happening on this site, and being allowed the freedom to state what I want to say, not what I am dictated to say.
Being dictated to like this is in my opinion, taking liberties away from us even more than stopping us from smoking.
Ha, ha, that's me told - but then I never claimed to be an out-and-out libertarian. I'm actually an old-school print journalist and I like a little order. Nothing gives me greater pleasure than editing someone else's copy, a temptation I usually deny myself on this blog.
I don't mind if a thread goes off in an interesting direction that is related to the original post or a preceding comment. Sometimes, though, it's not, and people effectively hijack a thread to pursue their own agenda.
If you want to do that write your own blog and develop your own readership. In cyberspace there's room for everyone.
Well the way it's going ,anti smoking is getting absoloutley bonkers.
I'm afraid you will have to remove loads of my comments.
As I fear I am becoming "radicalised".