Who would have thought six years ago that this website would attract a million comments, a milestone it reached last night? When Lockdown Sceptics was started in April 2020 it combined a very serious and urgent cause with some rather light-hearted subjects and reader involvement. The serious cause was of course the Covid panic in all its glory. Being a lockdown sceptic was at that time very much a minority viewpoint – almost seditious, and certainly not one which any of the mainstream media outlets would allow you to espouse.
As comments on the site quickly proliferated, Toby needed moderators to keep things vaguely in check. The volume of comments that were moderated at that time told us that many more people were sceptical when in a sympathetic forum than they were in more established media, or even among their friends.
The light-hearted subjects were the start of moderating in earnest – many comments on a huge range of topics which had been set by readers, far more comments on any given day than is the case now. I’m guessing hundreds of comments each day and about a dozen moderators to oversee it.
In among the serious cause, and alongside the LS team’s great efforts to persuade serious writers to provide material, the site carried sections like ‘Love in a Covid Climate’, which attempted to be some form of dating site. We also had ‘Postcards from around the World’, which if nothing else reminded the imprisoned masses that there was a much bigger world still out there, even if it was only available to those whom governments would allow to travel.
The moderating team was busy, keeping things reasonably clean, stopping Toby being slung into jail and generally encouraging everyone to ‘Question Everything’, ‘Stay Sane’ and ‘Live Free’.
After about 18 months we morphed into the Daily Sceptic, at which point Covid was still a primary focus, with the Net Zero scam and woke behaviour added later. The site had survived being a rebellious upstart and seemed to become a little more grown up; the volume of comments slimmed down a bit, and commenters’ behaviour by and large improved. And that trend has continued until the present.
We know some of you dislike moderators because we sit in judgement on what you write. That’s a very understandable and healthy line to take, given that the Free Speech Union is our sister ship. Some think the moderators run an Old Boys Club expressly for the purpose of sniping at female commenters, which is hogwash. And yet others thank us for the odd bit of help with spelling, grammar or technology. But mainly we hope that you don’t even notice our presence as moderators and certainly don’t feel that we are breathing down your neck. We try to exercise a light touch when reviewing your comments.
Very early on in the life of Lockdown Sceptics, Toby had come up with his admirably succinct editorial policy in relation to comments and it has served us well:
Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Have there been permanent bans? Yes. Our protocol is to engage with offenders, point out what we don’t like and why, warn them and then, if they take no notice, ban – a rare occurrence.
Have we given warnings which have been heeded? Yes, I’m pleased to say.
What is the hardest thing we have to moderate? Well, that would probably be whenever freedom of speech is invoked – it is precious to us too, but we are also looking over our shoulders at the reputation of the site.
We allow a lot of freedom, but unless we really have to, we don’t allow through words which will trigger algorithms that could lead to the site being banned by internet browsers or the daily newsletter being blocked by email servers.
For a long time before the DS became an accepted part of life and Toby became ennobled, we moderated words which could make us look like fringe Right-wing nut-jobs and thereby an easy target for the popular Press to ridicule.
Thanks to people like Frisby, Kisin, Pearson, Peterson and Murray, it is now much more difficult for the Thought Police to shut down Right-wing views and commentary. And hearing the Starmer anthem sung at football matches will forever represent the time when the people spoke truth to power without fear of 31-month prison sentences.
He really must be a w****r to think that banging Connolly up wouldn’t blow up in his face.
There is still far too much hate crime nonsense, cancellation and no-platforming, but at least our arguments can get published now.
Which subject produces the biggest demand for moderation? Almost certainly on the DS, it’s Palestine. The views are entrenched; commenters aren’t always split along Left-Right lines, so there are attacks from both sides. The language is as strong as the feelings. Toby is well known as a supporter of Israel and the subject just seems to light a blue touch paper.
Can moderators be bribed? Certainly; we have an account at Berry Bros & Rudd for just that purpose. I’d publish the account number if I thought the moderators would allow it…
A thank you to all our commenters for over six years of insight, argument, humour, support and mainly polite behaviour.
Discussion
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20 Comments
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Profanity and abuse will be removed and may lead to a permanent ban.
Here’s to the next million.!
A million and one now!
Bring it on. I wonder how many words have been written by the many excellent and opinionated people here Below The Line?
P.S. being opinionated is a Good Thing
For all that the articles can be a bit hit and miss*, there have been lots of very good pieces written too. Insightful, enjoyable, even amusing. Congratulations to all the contributors.
*I don’t feel that we should preach to the converted, or necessarily be outraged quite as often as some think we ought to be. This is especially true about hypocrisy and crass behaviour of the left. As Churchill said, ‘If you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks at you, you will never reach your destination.’
(but only if they agree with me)
Can’t imagine any of my posts ever need moderating.
I wonder which swivel-eyed feminist thinks that… no, no I don’t
Great stuff! Well done, all and many thanks.
Thank heavens for the Daily Sceptic!
I’ll second that. Muchly.
The Lockdown Sceptic saved my sanity in 2020, particularly the BTL comments, you suddenly realised that there were literally 1,000s who thought like you. 1,200 comments wasn’t unusual when it was free (I recognise it had to become financially viable & remain exasperated at the number of people I know who’ve read it daily for 6 years & never paid a cent!).
Toby deserved his gong for the Sceptic alone.
And well done the moderators.
I think you do a great job.
And – the inevitable question – whose was the millionth comment?
That honour belongs to ‘For a Fistful of Roubles’, who submitted Comment No. 1,000,000 in the discussion about Allison Pearson. A very worthwhile cause and a great day for her, especially if the PCC has to pay the compo out of his own pocket. Fat chance of that I suspect, these types are all sucking hard on the public teat day and night
Did FaFoR win a prize??
Side issue, but I’m not a fan of the new format of the site. It seems harder to see what’s relevant to what I want to read.
No doubt I#ll get used to it, but I prefer it how it was.
Also the delivery of the DS Email is unreliable……
Things always get worse. It took me 77 years to find that out.
I wonder if the person who wrote the 1 millionth’s comment got champagne and a bunch of flowers…;)
I’ll never forget what the Sceptic meant to me back in 2020 when everyone was losing their heads over this deadly virus. I’ve read it ever since.
I still have the NHS leaflet that was pushed through my door stating that all over 75s had a 1 in 10 chance of dying if they caught Covid! I was 70 in 2020 and that was scary. I went online and found a site where you could put your BMI and current ailments in and calculate the true likelihood. I went to Stand Up in The Park on Sundays and stood in the cold with other sceptics. It was a revelation. I carried on looking after my young grandchildren. I never wore a mask or had any jabs. I went on two fantastic marches and I’ve never looked back …. Thank you Toby and the team for your incredible persistence in telling us the facts and not caring about the risks.
I’m embarrassed to say that I only became aware of the DS relatively recently – in the past couple of years. Still, better late than never.
I sometimes get “you’ve posted this comment before” when this is not the case. I wonder why
No, thank you to all at LS & TDS you really have been a life saver certainly in the early days when the whole world seemed to have gone barmy. The support humour and general discussion made me feel human and that I wasn’t alone. I Will forever be eternally grateful. Thank you once again. VIVE LA TDS!!!