I’m getting a few emails about normal comments going into the moderation panel, so here’s a quick guide to what’s happening.

We have very strong spam comment guards as we get around 500 of them per site per day. Many of them are totally horrific, and the rest are attempts at grabbing free advertising space.

We also have “first-comment moderation”, which means the first time you comment on the site, it will be moderated. Once you get that cleared, you should get through every time unless you put in two links or more. Some words also trigger the trap.

The Royal Anecdotes site has always been a law unto itself in moderation, blocking quite ordinary comments. Gigi had one in there this morning which I’ve now released from captivity. Long comments are more likely to be blocked than shorter ones.

We normally look at the moderation panel around 5 to 6 times a day, so they will pop out at some time. If you’re commenting in the U.S. in the evening, or in Australia, you will have to wait till the sun comes up over Devon, England for its release.

Just think of Paris Hilton and wait patiently.