I have had a deluge of nice email since I decided to close down the comments. I thought I would share a few anonymously as a sign of my appreciation.
Bryan this morning I was somewhat devastated to see your last post, no comments and no forum 
I understand the reasoning, as especially in recent months things have got a little out of hand, BUT
I would hope that you may reconsider, there are in my experience no other blogs like this one and it seems an awful shame to kill it. We will all be the poorer for it.
Hi Bryan,
I know you did what you had to do and I respect your decision. Can I ask you for one single thing? If you choose not to do it, then that\’s cool too.
Could you please post a link to my site just for the political commentary. We can always go to quality sites like yours for in-depth analysis, but us junkies love the silly arguing. If you agree I\’ll post a proper link back to your site, for that very purpose.
Please, do it for us political junkies. We would all appreciate it.
Anyway,
Thanks for considering the idea.
Cheers,
http://code311.blogspot.com/
I’d be willing to assist in moderating the comments in order to keep discussion going on OzPolitics Blog Entries.
I believe I have the capacity to be non-partisan with my moderating, and I’ve moderated forums and mailing lists before with success.
Let me know,
I fully understand your decision - comments threads have been becoming a nightmare. I assume you only took it after careful consideration, but I would just like to ask whether you considered the option of imposing a very tight limit of say 1-2 per day, no more than 150 words per comment, and banning anyone who got partisan?
I feel that would have got rid of most of the ’spam’ type comments. But I imagine you have good reasons for not wanting to do that; thanks for the opportunity your website afforded for some interesting discussions (on occasion).
As someone how has enjoyed your blog and the banter that that follows your postings. I am sad to see the closure of your comments pages. You have probably got lots of suggestion on reopening it. So here is my 2 bob. Maybe you can limit the comment to say 3 or 4 of the regular posters eg jasmine and another left wing poster and may 2 right wing poster?
Hi Bryan,
Sorry that you’re closing comments but understandable. I stopped posting as I found myself discussing what should be rather than what is.
Thank you for your efforts in publishing the site as it’s helped me better understand how our government works 
Regards,
Bryan,
Although I never registered or used the comments feature myself, I did enjoy the lively and robust debate when I read what others had to say. The sparring between people of different political views is half the reason I check this site daily.
I think it was a bad decision to remove the comments. If you felt it was taking too much time, then simply appoint some moderators from the better contributors.
I do hope you reconsider as this site wont be half as good without them.
Regards…
A good call, as soon as people start threatening each other with lawyers it’s time to walk away.
Are you still open to comment via this medium, or would you prefer to just let the blog stand as it is?
Bryan says … I am always happy to get emails
Hi mate,
As you don’t want to deal with drama resulting from comments on here, I thought maybe you could point people to a punbb forum I just set up. www.ozelection2007.info/forums is the address.
I’m just thinking that there will be lots of orphaned posters (like myself) - so pointing them towards this forum might be a nice parting gesture?
Hello Bryan,
I do hope you reconsider after giving I am sure many a rude shock. I am a lurker really and only found your site about 3 weeks ago, I have been visiting daily since then. Despite the fact that some comments are a bit full on, in general, I have to say, I have learnt so much from them. What an interesting and knowledgable group of people you have coming here.
Would you consider a fund raiser so you could employ someone to moderate? I would happily contribute.
There was a sense of community here and that is a very good thing IMHO.
Sincerely,
Hi Bryan,
I’m sorry to add to the deluge of emails I suspect you may receive over the next day or so.
Thanks for all your work. It’s been great, I’ve really appreciated it.
Could I offer a suggestion:
Turn off commenting AFTER your adieu post (not beginning from it). I noticed with the heated Qld Poll post that as it got heated, there were some who tried to calm things down. You may find the “wisdom of the crowd” may have other solutions to the problem. It would also, in a sense, give people a chance to say goodbye.
If you don’t, I’ll be sad, but understand.
Thanks for all your insightful analysis!
Bryan it is with great regret that i respond to your removal of the OZPolitic comments section of this site will leave an emptyness with many of us and if it had anything to do with my contribution to it then I apologise to you and the other bloggers.Despite being at opposite sides to the political argument to the lefties on this site I have (without them knowing )considered their arguments and read their links in an attempt to understand their position.I have found your site very informative and eye opening and the chance to read the considered arguments of the knowledgable people instructive and rewarding. Even if it is impossible to reconsider your desision please allow us to view your site!
regards
Hi Bryan, long, long time reader and occasional poster at oz politics.
Just thought I’d drop a quick line of support in regards to your incredibly well organised and thought out blog. I will miss reading over the banter amongst the comments, as this place was unique to anything else on the net. It was, for all its inclusive faults, a discussion of ideas amongst people of various backgrounds, although the left appeared slightly more populous. Just slightly.
I have watched this little blog grow and flourish over the past two years, from a place where there were but a few comments per post to one where dozens are the norm, I understand that moderation would be somewhat of a pain. I have moderated a board myself before, although never a politics one, and understand the constant dilemmas faced in that regard. And, of course, nobody can remain completely non-partisan (although I don’t think I have ever seen anybody do as good a job as yourself)
Regardless, this site, mainly your various guides to politics, was what stimulated my interest in politics when nobody else around me seemed overly interested. This, of course, was before I started up at uni…anyway.
I don’t think one could put together a more interesting, informative guide if they tried. Whatever you do, don’t disband this site to write it up in a book, because I have little doubt others have taken the same view as me. By keeping this site up you have informed hundreds or thousands of people about the various structures in place in our system.
One hopes that you will find a way in which the comments will be re-opened. Have you considered employing moderators perhaps? Word press is very flexible with that. Unfortunately, I get the sense your mind is made up, which is a shame because Australia needs to get more people interested in the political system, and this was a fantastic way of doing so.
Regardless, I thank you for the posts which have, over time, spawned hours of interesting reading, both from yourself and others, and wish you all the best.
Cheers
Bryan - I apologise for any entries of mine that may have fueled the antagonism. I’ll miss the cut and thrust, though.
Sad to see it come to this, but thanks for providing it for so long.
G’day Bryan, just letting you know I fully understand shutting off the comments. Last week or so just not been the same there, as lunatics wanting arguments rather than discussion (didn’t even reply to the last blog entry as couldn’t be bothered with them). Thanks for the good times anyway mate. All the best for the future, and will continue to read your blog. I dunno how some people find time for cyberspace to be quite honest. Have given up message boarding completely last month, just too time consuming. And even the admins say it takes huge amounts of time. Just not worth it IMO, family and RL is way more important.
Thanks again,
Bryan,
I am really sorry that you have closed down your comments section of your
Blog.
For quite a while now I have been a regular visitor to your Blog and really enjoy your subjects and analysis.
I can see why you feel you are unable to continue with the comments section on each blog as there has been a marked increase in personal vitriol from a few over-enthusiastic Coalition supporters and of course this encourages response from lefty supporters.
I feel somewhat apologetic towards you as I don\’t think I helped matters by pointing that out to those people. For that I am sorry.
I do hope that you can see your way clear to continuing with your excellent analysis but you may possibly be able to continue the comments by invitation only to a select group that have a record of useful and non adversarial type comment.
I look forward to continuing to follow your commentary and analysis on unfolding events.
Cheers,
Ah well Bryan, a victim of your own success I suppose. You could have given a warning though.
Thanks for the memories
Thanks Bryan
The comments were a great way to swap ideas and learn different views, but I can see the problems and work it caused you.
Bryan,
’Tis a shame you had to do that but then it’s probably for the best. I registered a few days ago and it was also taking up too much of my time reading and posting!
Best of luck to you and thanks for your time and effort.
Good luck and thanks for all your hard work on the site.
Bryan,
I am sorry that you were forced to close down the comments. It was a truly noble gesture. It stimulated debate and I hoped I would see some consensus, comment analysis rather then name calling and disrespect for another’s point of view (thats what we have parliament for). This site fulfilled this need for a while and opened my eyes to a new way of looking at things and for that thank you.
No doubt your many contributors will be stunned and I for one will regret the loss of robust debate by my fellow Australians with their passionate views, but my love of that died when I saw people playing the man and not the argument.
Adieu Ozpolitics’s and thanks for the memories
Bryan, I think I’ve mentioned to you before that I have been an assistant moderator on a […] forum for many years. It’s one which has many hundreds of posts a day and entails a lot of contention and a lot of trolls.
The reason that assistant moderators were recruited was for precisely the same reason you’ve just pulled the plug. The “host” was spending too much time trying to maintain a standard of discussion while attempting to write articles for the site. He, like you, was exhausted.
This is, basically, what happens when a site becomes successful. I want to suggest to you that the best response is not to run away from your success, but exploit it.
I imagine that there must be a number of long term members here who you trust for their objectivity and capacity to make judgements on what goes over the line. (Of course, this requires an agreement of what “going over the line means.) This site is one of the most successfu political sites in Australia, and that’s in large measure because of the comments by the posters. That’s not to denigrate even faintly what you do. It’s just that there is a huge hunger among many to express their opinions and your site was helping provide that, bouncing off your posts.
I don’t know about the specific technicalities of your blog, but it might allow you to check IP addresses and blog known trolls. Even if it doesn’t, you can be as strict as you like about the rules, and if you recruit assistants, then the work will be done for you.
So my advice is don’t destroy what you’ve created. Take a break. Tell the posters here that you’ll be back in two, three, whatever weeks, with a new structure/policy. Meanwhile, recruit the people you trust. They’ll be happy to invest their time because they appreciate the importance of your site.
And you might even be able to attract some advertising, if that makes it more attractive to you.
Anyway, I hope you’ll think about this. It’d be very sad to see the discussion here vanish. Not just for the sake of the posters here, but for Australian democracy. Seriously.
Bryan, I understand your frustration and have admired your efforts in running this site. But need the comments be vetted by you ? It’s open slather and a lot fun for us. It has taught me not to rise to every bait but sometimes Glen etc just crack me up.
Could I suggest you have a members-only site ? With rules and penalties for mis-behaviour ? I would pay a small fee to continue the more fun parts of the discussion. Part of the problem was that it was free, and so was abused. Tragedy of the Commons ?
Anyway, all the best. Will keep checking for your interesting posts.
regards
Bryan,
So long and thanks for all the fish.
Update 17 June 2007:
Bryan
I discovered bloggs in February, first was Lavartus Prodeo, which had a list of political bloggs, and I checked in to Oz Politics. Your site was the first blog. I checked every day since then and I panicked when your site went down for a couple of days and even asked at L/P what had happened. Someone was kind enough to give me your temporary site and my world became stable again. As you may well have realised by now I am sorry you no longer take comments. I have never contributed because I don\’t have the knowledge or confidence to, but many of the comments I related to, and many expressed my feelings of trepidation about this coming election. I hope you continue to do your analysis of all the polls and betting markets and I will have to try and keep my own hopes alive without the support of the group that regularly contributes to your site.
Thank you again for the hope, fun and joy your site has brought to me.
Hi Bryan.
Just wanted to agree with the spirit of the emails you copied. Although I am sad to see the comments go, as there was a lot of interesting stuff amidst all the carry-on, I was not surprised you made this decision, after the last little effort of people threatening each other with lawyers. Not an edifying spectacle. Without wanting to rant about the Yewth Of Today, and having no idea of the ages of the offenders, I do think this was a sad instance of what has been called “commodification” or “productisation” (horrible neologisms, I agree). Some “commentators” seemed to think you were some kind of servant rather than approaching the blog in a collegiate manner. Anyway, if it ever proved possible to start the comments up again, I know there are a lot of people who, even if not contributors, would read with interest. In the meantime, yes, thanks for all the fish. Regards,
Well I guess I can get some work done now. Wonderful site Bryan, completely addictive, I read a thousand times more than I posted, which is as it should be, but could not be said for everyone. I will miss it terribly, though I hope you will reconsider and start again in some form. I would happily pay a cash money sub for the pleasure of the rolling debate/brawl. Non-partisan’ is never an option for a political site IMO… but that was the joy of it. Thanks very much for all your work. Regards,
Nothing much to add that hasn`t been said I suppose, but really disappointed things are closing down. I`m living in Japan at the moment, so it`s a little difficult to keep track of the views of the man on the street. I have read your stuff with great interest and will really miss the chat.
Simply a fantastic site. I`d pay to share comments on it.
Cheers mate
Hi Bryan,
Thank you for providing quality charts and analysis and the means to discuss it. Sorry you felt obliged to end discussion, the site had acquired gestalt. I do understand your frustration with some posters, hope I was well behaved. Sorry it ended so suddenly. I’ll admit to preferring some notice being given.
I hope you reconsider. I made some suggestions as to how to handle ill-behaved posters; I have experience in this area. Happy to help if you wish.
Regards,
Bryan,
It has been a pleasure to read your blog and your analysis of the polls.
I understand your decision to withdraw comments. I am disappointed. Not by your decision but by the deterioration in the commentary that had been occurring over the past month or two that led to your decision.
Regards
Hi Bryan
I must admit, when I saw your post last-night I was hoping that was I just seeing things. Alas, when I checked again this morning, reality struck.
I posted on your site for over two years and to be honest, I enjoyed every moment of it. As a matter of fact, this is my all time favourite website. While I was a bit of a smartarse a good portion of the time, reading your postings as well as the contributions from other readers was very interesting (and at times very amusing). I really do hope you change your mind on this one or at least consider other possibilities: such as retaining your forums at the back end of the site, where frivolous discussion is ok.
Nonetheless, you must keep this site going in order to satisfy the fixes of myself and other political junkies. I wish you well for the future.
