Blog Rules & Policies

Enforcement of discipline is quite lax on this blog, but there are a few rules nonetheless that anyone who wishes to leave feedback here is expected to follow in order to preserve their right to comment.

Email Policies & Contact | Comments & Moderation

Contact & Email Policies

Please note that any and all email(s) and/or other message(s) I receive are liable to be reposted, either in part or in full, on the blog at my discretion. I will generally honor requests for privacy or anonymity, depending on the respect I am given. But if you don’t want to risk your letter being published here and/or personal information made public, then it’s probably best not to send it.

Secondly, be warned that any email(s) and/or other message(s) sent to me that contain various levels of stupidity or vileness will be posted on the blog for all to see, including any and all personally identifying information (name(s), email address(es), IP address(es), etc.). Your message(s) will also be posted in the The Dungeon for all to see and mock.

Any email(s) and/or comment(s) that contain any threats of violence will be forwarded to law enforcement.

Comments & Moderation

You are free to post just about anything you want, no matter how snarky, coarse, insulting or downright annoying it may be, but there are a few notable (and, I believe, fully reasonable) rules I expect commenters to follow, noted below:

• No trolling.
  Trolling is the act of writing comments intended solely to anger, annoy and otherwise create unnecessary conflict, without actually saying anything of substance (not to be confused with comments who honestly hold assholish opinions). Trolls are pathetic losers and do not merit any of my time, patience or mercy. Trolling comments will be deleted on-sight and trolls themselves will be instantly banned.

• No spamming.
  Spamming is the act of posting insubstantial comments that consist solely of advertisements and links to unrelated websites, or the same text from other comments copy-pasted over and over again. This is quite obnoxious; spam posts will be deleted and repeat offenders may be banned if they don’t stop after receiving an appropriate warning.

• No thread derailment.
  Thread derailment is the act of writing comments intended, not inherently to spawn anger and discord, but simply to skew a comments thread and lead it entirely elsewhere from the matter at hand. Off-topic comments and conversations are perfectly welcome, of course, but comments created solely to derail threads will be deleted. Commenters who repeatedly derail threads without heeding my warnings may be banned.

• No excessive vileness.
  Civility is certainly not a requisite for commenting on this blog, but there are limits. Language that would put a drunken sailor to shame for no good reason is simply obnoxious and therefore prone to either being edited, or at worst, being deleted (and the commenter being warned). Repeat offenders who can’t seem to type anything without making my eyes bleed will be banned.

• No threats.
  I hope I don’t really need to point this out, but not only are threats of violence or death the hallmark of the immature knuckle-dragger, they are also blatantly illegal. No such messages are ever permitted on this blog under any circumstances. Anyone caught making them will be instantly banned and, depending on context, may be reported to law enforcement.

• Just don’t intentionally piss me off.
  Seems like the most basic, obvious and straightforward rule to me. Comments that don’t specifically violate the previous rules may still be removed if they’re written to deliberately get on my bad side. Remember: Blogs are akin to their owner’s metaphorical living room. Everyone’s welcome to stay and chat, but if you irritate me enough despite my warnings to stop, you run the risk of being kicked out. I’m easy-going and desensitized enough so that you really won’t offend me unless you specifically try to.

Regarding comment modification: I reserve the right to edit reader comments if:

• Commenters specifically request it (such as to fix double-spacing, broken links, etc.);
• Duplicate comments (aka “double posts”) are made (duplicates of the first will be deleted);
• Banned commenters attempt to post (instant comment deletion)

Banned users may also see their previously posted comments disemvoweled for added hilarity. I will never edit comments to misrepresent or mischaracterize anyone’s intended meaning. Registered Disqus users may edit their own comments if they wish.

I treasure free speech and openness, and as such, I will never subject my blog or its commenters to comment pre-moderation. Only in rare cases where the rules above are breached may one run the risk of losing their commenting privileges.

Last updated: 05/11/12 12:35 AM