Adding Comments

In a previous life I would add comments using an open source system, and keep them inclusive and unmoderated, as I’ve always supported free speech. Unfortunately anonymous contributions online can delve anywhere from ad hominem attacks to hate speech to threats online.

A few years ago, the federal government of Canada sent me to represent Canada on the world stage to talk about the subject, “Harnessing the Power of Digital Technology to Counter the Proliferation of Online Hate” and I realized working to improve discourse online is a very complex issue to try and solve.

One of the small ways I’ve proposed we improve the issue is using a project I envisioned called The Debate Pyramid. You can read more about it on the website, but I will moderate the comments on this blog by filtering out the bottom two rungs of the debate pyramid, namely ad hominem attacks and name calling. As of writing this, nothing else will be filtered.

As I’m now powering this blog with Jekyll instead of Wordpress, I could find no open source commenting solution that was easy and free to implement, so we’re using Disqus in the interim until something better comes along.

I look forward to your comments and engaging with you, I wish there was a better way to do this, but I’d love your feedback if you have other suggestions!