Moderation Options

First of all, here's a picture. It's a fountain in front of the rec center where I work out. I took a walk around the building, and then around the fountain before going to work out in the water. Working out in the water usually helps me think, but I've got a LOT of thinking to do, so I guess it seemed like a good idea to walk around in something vaguely resembling nature.

I apologize for the weird thing with the comment moderation yesterday. When I logged into the administrator controls (which I hadn't had time to do yet, and they are NOT the most straightforward things), I saw an option that would require comments from "new" posters to await approval. I thought that seemed like a reasonable option because there is a fairly small core group here, and in the event that anyone new DID come along, it wouldn't be THAT much of a hassle to approve his or her first few comments.

I am SUPPOSED to be able to just click "approve user" for each of you, and then not have to approve each comment individually. When the "approve user" option didn't seem to be working, I tried approving all the comments individually. But no matter what I did, that "comment awaiting moderation" message kept coming back. I tried to post a comment in last night's thread explaining what happened, but MY comment seems to have disappeared forever.

I've returned the moderation settings to the way they were, which is that all comments are published immediately, but can be deleted after the fact. (By the way, I'm trying to figure out if we can have multiple moderators, but haven't explored the issue thoroughly. I'm not sure but that might be a "premium" feature.

Anyway, here's what I was trying to implement last night...

Pre-moderation for new users

Comments are not visible to other commenters until the author is approved by the moderator.

A user is considered "new" until his messages are approved at least 5 times AND more then 12 hours passed since the first post.

As I've noted above, that had seemed like a manageable option. I still don't understand why I couldn't actually approve messages once and for all.

There's another option where a comment could be hidden if a certain number of people "flagged" it. My first reaction is that would be just *asking* for trouble. But I don't know for sure.

I will check back when I am able. I've got some things I need to take care of now.

Some even have sea glass...

The potter is in...

While visiting Woods Hole, our friend took us for a walk by her house. There we met a wonderful artisan named Joan Lederman whose pottery features glazes made from the silt at the bottom of various oceans and seas. She writes on each piece where it came from, sometimes even including the coordinates. Research scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution bring her the samples they took that they cannot use. Fascinating and gorgeous.
http://www.thesoftearth.com/homepage.htm

From last year's stash. . .

How's the view?

This was part of the view from our window in Woods Hole, Cape Cod, weekend before last.

House Wren in my yard

Still adding sticks to its nest during the storm.

Why we lost power...

This happened two telephone poles down from my driveway.

Traveling Mercies to all heading home from Deanfest!

This is a nave window in the oldest Episcopal Church on Cape Cod:
Church of the Messiah in Woods Hole, MA.