My policy on comments has fluctuated over the years. My current attitude is summed up by the moment in the 1980 Presidential campaign when Ronald Reagan declared "I paid for this microphone." This is not a public forum. I pay for it. If you want a microphone, pay for one of your own.
Accordingly, my comment policy begins with the assumption that as blog owner I have 5 key rights:
- Control over content and comments.
- Right to edit comments.
- Right to censor comments.
- Right to delete comments.
- Right to block comments by specific persons.
Those rights translate into the following policies:
- Not all posts will be open to comments. I reserve the right to close certain posts to comments from the moment they are published. Generally, these will be posts whose nature suggests they will lead to troll attacks. Other posts will close automatically after one week.
- Comment Form Guidelines: The comment form must be filled in with a proper or legitimate sounding name and URL. Comments using keywords, spam or splog-like URLs, or suspicious information in the comment form will be edited or deleted.
- Email Privacy: Email addresses are required for commenting, and they are not published on the blog, nor shared. They may be used by me to privately contact the commenter.
- Commenter Privacy and Protection: All email, snail mail, phone numbers, and any private and personal information posted in any comment will be deleted as soon as possible to protect the privacy of the commenter. To prevent such editing, never share this private information within the blog comment.
- Language and Manners: This blog is “family friendly” and comments which include offensive or inappropriate language, or considered by me to be rude and offensive, will be edited or deleted. Play nice.
- A Comment is Conversation: A comment which does not add to the conversation, runs of on an inappropriate tangent, or kills the conversation may be edited, moved, or deleted.
- No Personal Attack Comments Permitted: In the interest of fair play, no personal attacks are permitted in this blog’s comments. You may question or argue the content, but not attack me or any other commenters. Failure to respect fellow participants on this blog could result in removal and blocked access.
- Comment Spam: Any comment assumed to be possible comment spam will be deleted and marked as comment spam.
- Commenters Blocked: Anyone who violates this Comments Policy may be blocked from future access and/or commenting on this blog.
- All Rights Reserved: Again, I expressly reserve the right to edit, delete, move, or mark as spam any and all comments. I also have the right to block access to any one from commenting on the entire blog.
- Hold Harmless: All comments within this blog are the responsibility of the commenter, not the blog owner, administrator, contributor, editor, or author. By submitting a comment on our blog, you agree that the comment content is your own, and to hold this site and all subsidiaries and representatives harmless from any and all repercussions, damages, or liability.
- Trackbacks Are Comments: All trackbacks will be treated inline with our Comments Policy.
