It goes without saying that Beyond the Rhetoric wouldn’t be what it is if it wasn’t for the input and discussion carried on by the site’s visitors and commentators. I definitely appreciate everything that you guys have to say, and I’ve demonstrated this by consistently giving some link love back to the top commentators each month. Without your feedback and inspiration, I’m not sure if I would be able to blog everyday like this.

That said, as this blog continues to grow, so do the number of spam bots and real-life spammers who show up with inane comments about pornography and male enhancement. By and large, these comments are caught by Akismet, but there are several that make it through the cracks. When these numbers were small, I was able to delete them shortly after they were posted. It wasn’t a big chore. However, these numbers have definitely increased in the past few months, so I made a decision to take the anti-spam campaign a little further.

Some of you may have noticed that your comments don’t get posted right away. I implemented this new strategy some time back, but neglected to let you all in on how it works.

Your comment will be held in moderation if:
    – It contains more than one link, or
    – You are a first-time commentator

You would think that the first criterion would be enough to block out most spammers, but there are so many spammers that just use bold text and a link back to their username. This is why the second criterion has been implemented.

If you’re posting a comment for the first time on Beyond the Rhetoric, it will be held in moderation until I approve it. While waiting for approval, feel free to comment on other posts as well and I’ll approve them all at the same time. A small note that I should make is that I don’t (necessarily) delete comments just because they are negative or have something bad to say about me. You’re perfectly entitled to your opinion and this is not why I’ve decided to moderate first time comments. That said, try to keep the cussing and political incorrectness to a minimum.

Retarded pandas should be okay. (Sorry, that’s a bit of an inside joke.)