As many of you know our blogs were initially introduced to serve as a great place for people to share whatever was going on in their lives (which are what blogs are generally for) however they were also partly introduced so that people could share things that weren't allowed on the forums, such as litter mentions, light self-promotion, requests for donations/sponsorships etc

However, recently somebody has used a blog to post updates on their training with an electric shock collar. And as you might imagine all hell as broken loose in the comments. So why don't we moderate them? Well that's the point - we don't! Blogs are self-moderated, the blog owner decides which comments can stay up and which ones cannot (that's how blogs on the web generally work). But that leaves a loophole for them to say whatever they want as nobody is moderating their own comments.

We don't really want to start moderating the blogs - because they were never designed to work that way, and we also don't want to start censoring what people can talk about, because that pretty much goes against the whole point of a blog - they're meant to be places where you can talk about whatever you want to talk about, no matter how contentious the issue. If we do start putting bans on topics then they kind of stop being a blog - so perhaps a better option would be to not have them.

I hate electric shock collars as much as the next person - but don't think censorship is the answer, what happened to good ol fashioned ignoring something you don't like? And the way blogs work - newer blogs push down older ones... so it doesn't take long for them to vanish of the front page.

However, having said that - I do appreciate that for some it goes against the ethos of the site, someone using our blogs to speak about their experience with shock collars - in a positive light - which some might see as promoting them.

The question is would it be acceptable to start adding things that are not allowed to be discussed in blogs? Or is it better to call it a day and just remove them?

I think the blogs should stay. Why should the majority be punished for the behaviour of one.

As for how to manage them, I'm at this moment undecided.

I do like the suggestion someone else made about having a controvercial section, maybe the CM stuff could be put in there too?. Perhaps have it so that guests and maybe new members can't view it.

Edit; surely if the blog owner is recieving nonesense they should be able to delete it and if the other way around and a complaint is made, Admin can?

i wondered that myself when i received an unsolicited attack on gnasher's blog.

i couldnt help but think if this was on the normal forum, that person and their posts would have been censored.

I do think that the topic of e-collars is bringing this lovely forum down slightly - and that is such a shame.Given that we have now had several, long, detailed threads ON this topic, wouldn't it be an idea to ban it in the main forum and on the blogs..?

I don't see why one person's desire/need to keep posting about e collars, should trump the desire of the majority of us NOT to have to keep reading about how this poor dog is being subjected to this cruel device.