We’ve installed a racism filter

One of the things we’ve tried to do at the Park Rag is provide a place where community members can voice their opinion. We do that through posting stories written by others and enabling comments on stories.

Unfortunately some recent comments have become racist in nature. We’re frankly tired of reading them and we believe other readers are too.

So, we’ve implemented a comment filter that automatically deletes comments it judges as racist or bigoted. We’re sure it won’t be 100% perfect and some will slip through. We’re also sure that some legitimate comments will be trashed. So, if you’ve made a comment that doesn’t appear within a few hours, just email us the comment at .

We appreciate the feedback from readers on this topic. They presented a variety of good suggestions. One reader recommended removing anonymous comments. We found two potential issues with this. First, we feel there is value in anonymous comments. Second, the typical way to actually tie a user to a REAL person is through a Facebook Login. For instance, the Park Record uses Facebook for comments. We don’t really like the privacy implications of tying comments to a Facebook account. So, that was a non-starter.

Another reader recommended just getting rid of comments altogether. That would be the easy route and many online websites have done that. However, we do like the easy ability for people to comment on subjects. As long as the comment adds value to a discussion (even if it’s highly critical), we feel it’s a chance to learn and maybe understand a viewpoint we don’t have.

So, we are going to see how well a machine can do at masking the racism that seems to plague the Internet.

Thanks for taking the journey with us. And as always, thanks for reading the Park Rag.