Mark and David, thank you for this interview. I advise clients on how and when to apply various aspects of Web 2.0 technology down here in Australia and I have always been loathe to advocate moderation of blogs. My preference has been to run a sharp spam filter to cut spam comments (thank you, Akismet), and monitor comments as vigilantly as possible. This means a client only needs to take drastic action on the rare occasion that they receive an “off colour” comment. In the meantime, their community has been able to engage in the cut and thrust of conversation without the disruptions in the conversation timeline caused by delays in authorising comments.
It has been refreshing to hear David’s take on this and the rationale employed by the NY Times. It makes sense.
Could it be that a major media outlet needs to apply moderation whereas a smaller company or corporation might be fine adopting my approach which I still feel is a little more in the spirit of Web 2.0?
Thanks again for a great discussion.
PS Mark, I hear your ads of FIR and it has taken a client to forward me this link to prompt me to join the community. How about that: traditional advertising vs word-of-mouth. Never ceases to amaze me!

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