Further to my previous post, I sent an email to the Mail Online this morning:
Dear Sirs,
On Saturday you lifted a particularly tendentious report from the Guardian and published it here.
For more than 48 hours you published not a single comment. Yesterday afternoon, possibly in response to an email I sent you, you published a handful of comments (23) before closing the article to any further comments.
I know other comments were submitted so why were they not published either when other reports on the Mail Online have well over a thousand comments?
I would welcome a response.
To be fair I received a prompt reply:
Many thanks for your email.
I am sorry that your comment has not been published. We have pushed through all appropriate comments but I cannot see your comments in the queue. Moreover, I cannot see that your email address is registered with our system. Did you use a different email address with which to post comments? If so, would you kindly supply me with that email and I will investigate what has happened to your post.
If not, I think there may have been a problem with the registration process. If you could ensure that you have completed the registration process through to its conclusion (you need to click on the automated validation email that you should have received from us) I will be able to temporarily reopen comments on that article and allow you to post.
I’m sorry for the frustration this must have caused - the comments on this story were unfortunately overlooked at the weekend. I will endeavour to ensure there is no repeat in the future.
Not entirely satisfied with that I replied as follows:
Thanks for your response. I registered on Saturday, received an email and clicked on the link. I appreciate it is a bank holiday weekend and some reports may have been overlooked but this report made some serious allegations without giving anyone the opportunity to respond and the comments were the only place that people could rebut them or offer a different viewpoint.
I know of several other people who tried to post comments and none of them have been published. I am sure there must be others. In the light of this I don't understand why you are no longer accepting comments on this story.
Again, the reply was quick and to the point:
I have reopened comments on this story. They are going to be moderated so there may be a delay in publication but I’ll keep an eye on it and push through all the comments we receive. The comments will be turned off automatically at midnight tonight.
If you don’t see your comment within a reasonable time, let me know and I’ll have a closer look.
I can assure you there are currently no comments waiting to be published on this story.
So, you have until midnight tonight to comment on the story that "Pro-tobacco activists accused of harassing and abusing anti-smoking campaigners as government considers banning branding on cigarette packets".
Over to you.
PS. I have re-posted my comment. Important, I think, that as many people as possible do so - but keep them sane and reasonable!!
Update: My comment has now been published.
Update 21:20: I know quite a few of you have tried to post a comment without success. I have just sent a further email to the Mail Online that reads:
You said that the article would be re-opened for comments and would remain open until midnight tonight.
There was a short burst of activity this morning during which nine comments were posted. Since 12:56 not a single comment has appeared, despite the fact that several people have been in touch with us to say that they tried to post a comment this afternoon.
I wouldn't make such an issue of this if it wasn't for the one-sided nature of the article which simply repeated a report from the Guardian with no attempt to check the facts – many of which were taken out of context – that lay behind it.
Frankly, we can't do any more without making ourselves look idiotic but thanks to everyone who posted – or tried to post – a comment.
Update 22:23: My latest email appears to have had some effect. Published comments have risen from 32 to 54. It is regrettable though that more people haven't taken the trouble to have their say. If we are to win this battle it is essential that we engage with the mainstream media.
This was an opportunity for a significant number of people to make their views known. Preaching exclusively to the converted is not going to win us any battles long-term and what bothers me, reading one or two "pro-smoking" blogs this weekend, is the number of self-congratulatory comments written by people who seem to believe that all publicity is good publicity.
It's not. This was a chance to set the record straight in relation to the allegations that were made. I'm sorry that relatively few people bothered to do so.