Commenting Changes

Those who read this blog, or many other NZ feminist blogs, will know that people have raised the issue of transphobia and this blog being an unsafe space for some transpeople. These are concerns that we want to address. We are discussing different options for improving The Hand Mirror, this post is about the first step we are going to take, not all we are intending to do.

One of the things we know we need to do is change our comment section. We're likely to make a number of changes and experiments to improve it - some in reasonably direct response to the issues people have raised, and others to address our experiences as moderators. Addressing the comment section is just part of the changes we want to make. We are also talking about ways to directly address transphobia.

We want to do two things now, before we make other changes. The first is make it easier for people to report out of line comments. We have set up a contact address specifically reporting comments (thehandmirrorblog@gmail.com). This will appear on the commenting page and so should be easily accessible. We will aim to act on e-mails or reply within a day, but need to make clear that sometimes that won't be possible.

The other thing we need to do now is make it clearer about what sort of space we are. We will probably revise the comment policy substantially over the next few months, but in the meantime we have just added material to reflect both reality, as our current. You can see the revised post here. We're not accepting the current situation, and we are working to change it, but in the meantime we think it's important to be honest.

I want to be really clear that we don't know how to create the sort of comment section we want to have. As we make changes some may not work, so we welcome on going feedback and ideas.

Note about comments: Julie's apology thread remains open if you want to discuss anything that happened previously. This is about commenting sections, moderating tools, and policy, please stay on-topic.