As long-time readers know, after January 6, we temporarily shut down American Thinker comments because nasty little trolls had gotten into the comments and were trying to get the Biden FBI to go after both American Thinker and those who wrote comments at the site. We eventually reinstated the comments on a subscriber-only basis, a useful way to screen out trolls. However, between commenting rules that have always been opaque and a recent change to the comment system...well, it’s time to bring DOGE-like transparency to the system.

As noted, comments are a subscriber-only privilege. For those who like to be part of a conversation with like-minded people or even people who have opposing ideas, our subscription cost is a fair one (and, indeed, quite low compared to many other sites). In addition, subscribers get an ad-free experience and a weekly newsletter in which the regular editors—Monica Showalter, Olivia Murray, JR Dunn, Mike McDaniel, Drew Belsky, and me—write unique essays commenting on the week that was.

So, that’s the promo.

Now, about how the comments work. We do not have an in-house commenting system, which is complicated and expensive to build and maintain. Instead, we run a third-party software.

The software is set to weed out comments that are manifestly problematic or that have the potential to be problematic. If the comment is intended to sell things (usually pornography or gambling), the system deletes it. Likewise, if the comment is a mess of obscenities, vile threats, or illegal statements, off it goes. We don’t get many of this type of comment thanks to the subscription model, but some still slip through. People will pay to promote their businesses or just be horrible.

And then there are the comments that could be a problem. Understand here that the system has no discretion. Instead, it has the smarts to look not only for “signal” words and phrases but for variations of those words (and it’s really smart at catching variations). Then, it shunts those comments to use for the final call about whether they can be published.

The signal words and phrases are many. The most obvious ones are as follows, although the algorithm has a longer list than I can remember off the top of my head:

• Anything having to do with Jews or Israel. This is because, sadly, there are a lot of genocidal folks out there, as well as garden-variety antisemites.
• Manifestly racist, sexist, or otherwise abusive terms of any kind. These are classic words meant to demean the people to whom they refer.
• Words or phrases that condone or invite violence, rebellion, or other illegal activity.
• Insulting terms, such as “stupid” or “idiot.”

These signal words and phrases do not mean a comment will immediately be deleted. Instead, the comment goes to moderation. Once there, we editors determine whether the context means that the words and phrases are abusive or threatening (whether toward a group or other commenter), or even downright illegal, or whether they are used in a spirit of intelligent debate. Sometimes, we’ll edit ill-phrased comments to eliminate problem terms while leaving intelligent ideas behind for publication.

As many of you have seen, because we have a small staff, comments may occasionally be caught in moderation for a few hours, and I apologize for that. Life is not perfect.

Finally, many people may have noticed a big change, which is that the comments no longer appear on the same screen as the article or post as to which people wish to comment. Here’s why:

Most ad revenue, no matter the ostensible advertiser, ultimately runs through Google Ads. Google Ads, in turn, searches through all the pages on which ads appear for terms and ideas that offend Google’s sensibilities. If Google finds something it doesn’t like, it cuts off the revenue for that page.

Because we allow for fairly free-wheeling discussions on our comment pages (subject to the above limitations), Google will often tolerate our articles and posts but will take offense at a user’s comment. If that happens—boom! Our much-needed revenue vanishes.

The answer, as you see, is to move the comments to a page separate from the essay. That way, the comments continue, but an idea that isn’t ours but belongs to someone else won’t stop our revenue stream.

I hope this helps make things more understandable for those who read comments and those who like to read them.

Image by Grok.