Let's vote on this!

Moderation is a widely used word in our civilised society these days; at the very least, we are told that we should eat, drink, and exercise in moderation. We should even watch television and consume water in moderation. I wonder if there is a group of scientists or researchers sitting together somewhere thinking up things we should be doing next, in moderation.

I agree with many forms of moderation, but only when I exercise them on myself; when it comes to others, I take the attitude that it is up to the individuals, not me, to decide. Hence, when I was setting up this blog and was given the option by blogger.com to activate the comment moderation button, I chose "No".

I felt visitors should be given the freedom to express their thoughts. It is like inviting new acquaintances to my home; my first-time guests are free to behave as they see fit because I trust them, as mature adults, to act with civility and decorum. However, if they violate this trust then they don't get asked back and that's that.

I wished to hear others' views and opinions. Many of those posted were very different from mine, and usually after a civil discussion, I felt I had learnt something new. I was grateful to these visitors for providing a refreshing and informed perspective.

While almost all of the visitors to my blog, my abode in cyberspace, have been absolutely wonderful in supporting my feeble attempt in revealing my personal experiences and observations of this city, a couple of them have chosen to be unnecessarily rude while remaining cowardly anonymous.

These visitors were just aggressive with more than a hint of bitterness in their breath as they spitted out their comments. They provided neither valid nor informed reasoning but abuses, and resorted to childish name calling. They certainly showed themselves up as being lacking in taste and culture, the very essence they were trying to defend. As the saying goes, if you give them enough rope they can usually manage to hang themselves.

So I have a choice here; to let them continue to show their true colours and perform like monkeys for all to witness while lowering the general tone of my blog and disturb other visitors, or do I activate the moderation mechanism? To be, or not to be?

My star sign is Libra; it has been documented in many books on astrology that a Libran can be a bit of a procrastinator. Hamlet is probably the most famous character in literature to fit the description of a Libran male. My "Libraness" is most obvious when it comes to making decisions for others.

Well, being the procrastinating Libran that I am, I think it's fair to have a vote. I have just activated comment moderation, with my pledge that only the obscene and inappropriate would be censored. Hence, no valid opinion, however different from mine, would suffer the same fate.

Meanwhile, please let me know if you would like to keep this cleaner environment or go back to status quo by leaving a vote in the comment section. I shall follow what the final vote says in a week's time. Gracias, Merci, Grazie, Danke, Zie Zie.