Due to the appearance of abusive comments on Olyblog, our crack team of specialists has been working 24/7 to get a fix up and running. So, here it is:

Comments can now be rated, and each user can choose what categories they would like to view. Here are the categories:

• Profound -- Comments that leave you speechless b/c they are so amazing and life-changing.
• Insightful -- The wisdom that we've come to expect from Olyblog users.
• Useful -- Gets the job done.
• Off topic -- Not really what the thread is about.
• Driveby -- Commenter has no context and crashes the party in a rude manner.
• Abusive -- Clearly focused on hate, violence, or degradation.

Some examples from recent comments:

The contribution of Sylvester P. Smythe is a good example of a driveby. He had no history on Olyblog, no prior relationship with the community, and yet he felt that he could enter the debate by using inflammatory and offensive language.

The comments of nsmdevildog are an example of abusive comments. They have been deleted from the site, and thus are not available to view, but even those who didn't see these comments will be able to identify them by the hate, racism, and depravity that characterizes them.

At this stage, it is not necessary to rate every comment. If you do nothing, you will still see all the comments (see below). For now, please rate comments that you feel are especially good or especially bad.

In order to filter the comments to your own preference, go to "Comment Viewing Options" at the bottom of comment threads. Presently, there are two levels to choose from: "Everything" or "Productive Only". If you would like to see all the comments regardless of rating, choose "Everything." If you would like only those categorized as "Profound," "Insightful," and "Useful," then choose "Productive Only." At some point, when whe have more comments, it may be necessary to add more preference levels.

Please let me know if anyone has suggestions or comments about this policy.

--Rick (your humble blog admin and caiman master)