Healthy Food Chart

Last week, I announced a new policy on the Diet and Weight Loss Blog: Reader comments would be reviewed before appearing on the site in order to reduce the number of marketing and nuisance comments. Because of the subject matter, this blog seems to attract more than its fair share of these.Of course, this means that that there may be a delay before comments appear on the site, which could potentially slow down the pace and spontaneity of the discussion--but it seemed like it might be a worthwhile trade-off. 

I was a little surprised by the overwhelmingly positive reaction to my announcement. This comment was typical: "I'd much rather have a delay or a little wait time than have to deal with spam, marketers or misinformation."  

So now I'm wondering whether readers of THIS blog might also prefer that comments be moderated. I'm not talking about filtering comments from readers who don't agree with my point of view.  If you read this blog regularly, you know that lively debate is a regular feature. In fact, that's one of the things I like best about this blog: It's not one of those discussions in which all participants already agree. Who learns anything from that?

Moderating comments might slow the exchange down a bit but it would help keep the discussion civil and on topic. As one comment on the Diet and Weight Loss Blog put it, it would also allow us to "weigh in on comments that, while legitimate or well-intentioned, may be perceived as "fact" or science-based when in fact they are spreading misinformation."

So, what say the readers of this blog? Would you see this as a positive development? Weigh in below.