[Mike Sagman]

Hi Red,

There is always a moderator here. However, “always” does not mean “all the time” (every minute).

Are you flagging inappropriate comments to alert the moderators?

This is a site where we welcome all kinds of open discussion. However, many regulars and guests believe it is their right to be rude. And to judge and brow-beat other well-meaning participants.

I see it all the time. And many times it is our “regulars” who make the most inappropriate remarks. I’m sure they believe they are actually “helping” the guest.

And it sickens Sandy and me every time we see this — as we observed many times over this past few weeks.

However, please keep in mind that being a moderator of ANY website can be a challenging job.

Every moderator walks a thin line between allowing every member of the community the freedom to openly express his/her opinion versus the invasive habit of micro-managing discussions.

Even worse, on a website where products are reviewed (as they are here), we’re also faced with appearing to be biased — by deleting certain posts about specific dog foods while allowing comments on competing products to remain.

Something we’ll NEVER do.

Unfortunately, there’s currently no way to flag comments in our Forums. This is because the software that enables these Forums does not provide a means for doing this effectively.

However, on the Disqus commenting areas located beneath every article and review on this site, users have the ability to “flag” a comment for moderation.

In any case, we’ll never remove comments simply because they are inaccurate or because we disagree with their content.

Thanks for your understanding and for being a member.