Do I Approve It Or Not?

As I state in the sidebar, this site moderates FIRST TIME commenters so that spammers aren’t put through. It’s a helpful method to avoid spam, and is a very slight inconvenience to the commenter (very slight because in most instances the comment is approved within a couple hours).

Just in the past hour or so I had Beth, from Boston, post a comment that was moderated because it was her first visit. The comment, on a post from last week, made me laugh out loud. This is all the comment said:

This is a bad website.

Now, that’s not spam in and of itself – there were no links in the comment, the email address listed seemed like it could be legit. So the question is: Do I approve the comment?

I ask because if it IS a potential troll, approving her comment thereby invites her to comment as much as she wants. And since she hates the site, do I even dare to guess what she may end up providing by way of commentary?

But if it is a legitimate user, on whom my first impression is wasted, but whom may come back and change her mind about the site and add valuable commentary of any kind, then approving it would seem like a good idea.

The good news is, I have her IP address, so if she ends up being a troll I can always blacklist her later on.

Okay, I made up my mind. I’m approving it.

Thanks, Beth!