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Last year about this time I disabled comments. I have now re-enabled them as part of a series of changes I’m making to the site. Important information on this is below.
But first, I want to highlight some additional blog changes. I have updated my theme as you can see. I have also made a dramatic cull of the archives. There were over 1500 posts, 150 pages worth, which was simply unmanageable for anyone to look at. A lot of them were no longer relevant (e.g., 2012 population estimate releases). So I got rid of everything that is not truly relevant today and widely of interest to all readers (not just those in a particular city). I retained a few posts that don’t meet this criteria because they are important ones that are still referred to by people today.
I will be implementing regular purges going forward too. So some of my 2015 posts will be archived off after a period of time as they become less relevant.
You’ll find that the archives are now much simpler to click through and browse. So too search results. I have also included archive pages for my book and film reviews, as well as pages with listings of my publications in other cites like City Journal and Governing. Just look at the Archive drop down menu at the top of the page.
In the near future I hope to be changing some of the site graphics and make additional tweaks.
I will also be rebranding the site and likely changing to a new domain name. While I will always be the Urbanophile, moving forward I will be using this more as a broader personal homepage. It will continue to be the place where all my work will be posted. But I may be expanding the coverage beyond urbanism over time, as with my recent forays into tech and politics.
Before I get back to commenting, I’m asking you all to do three things for me:
- Follow me on Twitter at @urbanophile.
- If you have not yet bought a copy of my e-book The Urban State of Mind, please do so. It will also make a great holiday e-gift for your urban included friends.
- If you have bought the book, please give it a rating on Amazon – your honest opinion only.
Now, back to comments. Comments are re-enabled on a going forward basis. The only post with commenting enabled right now is the one on the Brooklyn Bridge bike lane – and this one of course.
I previously let comments get out of control, and the discussion degraded and constantly went off into endless debates and rat holes. I continue to welcome vigorous discussion and disagreement with my position, but I will be aggressively managing the discussing this time around. To that end, I have created a comment policy. For the sake of convenience, here it is:
- No anonymous comments permitted. Users may sign in with their WordPress.com account or use a name/email combination.
- Your first comment will be held for moderator approval. Subsequent comments should post automatically. If you change the name or email under which you comment, then you will have to through the first comment moderation process again.
- Comments should be substantive and on-topic.
- Disagreement is welcomed, but no personal attacks. No more than two rounds of back and forth on a topic where agreement will not be forthcoming.
- Contextually appropriate self promotion (e.g., links to your own blog) is allowed.
- Comments will be be aggressively managed to maintain quality and flow. I reserve the right to delete any comment for any reason.
- Repeat offenders may be banned from posting future comments
- Spam comments will be automatically deleted.
If anyone encounters problems or has suggestions, please leave a comment about it or shoot me an email.
from The Urbanophile
http://www.urbanophile.com/2015/11/15/commenting-is-now-re-enabled-and-more-on-future-changes/
Kimberly Chiu 