Ouch, your "cancel" button should have a "Delete all content?" warning :/
I just typed something, hit the wrong button, and in a split second everything was gone because the comments window closed...
In any case, in a nut-shell, I wonder if Google will allow e.g. if you (as verified part of the story) send them a link to say illegal porn, or bomb building plans...
Posted by Philipp Lenssen at August 8, 2007 05:19 PMBlame the software :-).
Google's made clear they won't publish it "if your comment includes hate speech, calls to violence, or other offensive comments."
http://www.google.com/support/news/bin/answer.py?answer=74133&topic=12285
re: "We'll be trying out a mechanism for publishing comments from a special subset of readers: those people or organizations who were actual participants in the story in question."
Well, Seth, consider the hypothesis that Google is trying to do some constructive here.
Suppose, a poor subject is slammed gently or harshly by a news article. Google may be assuming something that much of the major newspapers aren't, at this point: that the subject of a story has the "right of first comment." (that is, even if the subject doesn't comment first, it is visually brought to the top.)