I Can Think of Only a Couple Reasons to Delete Comments

Posted on October 26, 2008 by Jim Duncan

And “they disagree with me” isn’t one of those reasons.

Why delete the comments of a very interesting thread? Because the commenters don’t agree with you. Really? Why, Brad? Last I looked, there were more than twenty comments on a very interesting and pertinent topic that affects all Realtors.

For just a brief moment, I’ll pull from the archives some advice I learned in August of 2006 about pulling posts that can be applied to comments as well -

One of the best (and worst) parts of blog writing is that the author can be held accountable for each and every word written. There is no action that draws more attention to those words than pulling a post. Removed or not, they will always be there, thanks to the search engines, RSS readers and the like.

I made this mistake once before (if you click through, please excuse the formatting – it is pre-Wordpress). I hope to never do it again. Remembering mistakes makes one better.

Deleting what one has written shows a lack of confidence in one’s words, thoughts and opinions. Are there legal implications to deleting posts? Precedence being set that a blog is therefore less credible?

Sometimes it’s better to just admit that you were wrong. It’s easy.

Thanks to Eric for pointing this out. I’m hoping that somebody PDF’d the thread before it was deleted.

If you’re a Realtor, spend the time educating yourself at Jay’s post and elsewhere about the threat potentially posed to us by our own Associations.

Update 27 October 2008: Now he’s deleted the trackbacks, too. I’d have taken a screenshot to prove that they were there and that he deleted them, but I’ve got a feeling my word’s proof enough.

Try reading this -

The 10 Signs of Intellectual Honesty

Pay specific attention to points 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10.

When you’re wrong, just admit it rather than try to hide it.

Update 27 October 2008 #2 – For a timeline of how the Sarasota Association of Realtors is diligently working against one of its own members, read Marc’s post.

About Jim Duncan

A Charlottesville Realtor who tries to stay on the bleeding/cutting/functional edge of technology and real estate trends. I have been selling real estate for the past 10 years, lived in C'Ville for twenty+ and am married to one of few Charlottesville natives left.
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  • http://www.phoenixrealestateguy.com Jay Thompson

    You have GOT to be kidding me!

    This guy called me and anyone who disagreed with him unethical (he did eventually apologize) and he also admitted he’d never seen Marc’s site. Yeah, so writes repeatedly how misleading Marc’s site is and then admits he’s never seen it???

    And then he deletes the entire discussion?

    Unbelievable.

  • http://www.realcentralva.com Jim Duncan

    It’s a real shame that he lacked the fortitude to defend his comments, and changed his entire post. It takes a special kind of person to delete an entire conversation – to nullify the time, thought, effort and attempt at an honest debate/discussion that was put forth by the commenters.

  • http://www.ryanwardrealestate.com Ryan Ward

    That is unbelievable. I checked in on the post today to see if he corrected his post and found it all missing. It’s unfortunate on many levels. Most, because it was an excellent place for others to have learned about the subject and really get 2 sides of the story. It’s this as much as anything that I find unfortunate.

  • http://www.theagenttrainer.com Matthew Rathbun

    Someone who is so unwilling to allow opposing views remain, evidentially doesn’t have much confidence in their stance.

    That’s just sad…. Most people would have left Jay’s comments, just to show that someone of that caliber was reading in the first place.

  • http://www.notthesarasotamls.com/ knox

    I wish the thread was still there – I rarely take my muzzle off and I feel i wasted it on that oaf.

  • gulfshoreslife

    Jim,
    I quote – “It takes a special kind of person to delete an entire conversation – to nullify the time, thought, effort and attempt at an honest debate/discussion that was put forth by the commenters.”

    I think your synopsis best exemplifies my feeling as well. I twice posted comments and neither ever appeared. In fact one of them should have been the first comment on the article. It was neither mean spirited nor lacking in thoughtful contemplation prior to taking the time to respond. As you stated, my time, thought, and effort was nullified by his moderation.

    What amazed me was that my two comments simply supported the facts and pointed out where he was wrong in his statements. The comments were not adversarial at all, but were never published. I would guess in total I had a good hour of my life nullified by his unreasonable moderation. I should just cut off his comment options so that no one wastes their time pointing out his ignorance and misstatements.

  • http://www.langfordhomesales.com Nat

    I read that post over the weekend & read most, if not all of the comments. What I can’t believe is that he left the post up and deleted the comments. I know he read the comments, due to his responses, but did he learn anything from them? If he did, he should have either removed the whole darn thing or simply apologized to Jay and the poor guy the original post was about.

    By the way, I spent Saturday night taking the word THE out all of my URLS! Then, I spent Sunday at GoDaddy buying up numerous variations of sites like http://www.I-am-just-an-agent-looking-for-leads dot com. Just want to be prepared if the use of the verbiage “home sales” becomes a violation of the code.

  • http://www.phoenixrealestateguy.com Jay Thompson

    Doesn’t surprise me that he deleted trackbacks too. He doesn’t respond to emails either. Some people don’t, and probably never will, get it. It’s really a shame as his was about the only voice supporting SAR. He killed a great thread.

    Apparently admitting he never seen the site he was condemning, and then saying the SAR should pay restitution was too much conflict for him to deal with.

    Reminds me of the seven year old that takes his ball and runs home crying when things don’t go his way.