Blogland,  Stateside

Weird comments filter

Remember when Harry’s Place had a filter that, for some reason, blocked comments with the word “monkey”?

If you think that was bad, check out this post about the weird comments filter at John McCain’s campaign website. (Apparently just getting authorized to comment there is an ordeal.)

One commenter wrote:

If someone can help me understand, there seems to be an automatic moderation in place. The most innocuous of words seem to be off limits, but I’m having a hard time figuring out which ones. I find myself editing my posts until they become almost meaningless and barren of information. Any ideas anyone?

The plea got this reply:

The filters are indeed very frustrating and incomprehensible! I am pretty good at finding the offending words after many, many hours of practice. Many of us have complained to the folks who run this site, but for whatever reason, the problem has not been completely resolved. It seems they do not like words that contain common URL suffixes, like plan et, Geor ge, intern et, or ganize, etc…Other common words iclude treat ment an ni ght. There are too many for me to list here.One way to isolate the offending word is to post a comment piecemeal. In time, you will learn the taboo words. If you would like me to help you, you can e-mail a comment to me at [Email address deleted] and I will try to fix it for you and send it back. Good luck.

Hey, you folks have it soft. As for the comments here that are almost meaningless and barren of information, they can’t be blamed on weird software.