Comment Policy

One of the reasons why blogs get hits? It’s often because of the comments. Sometimes the comments and the comments about the comments are far better than the blog-post itself.

Ahem. Just saying, because sometimes it’s true.

In that spirit, try to offer interesting, funny, supportive, or thought-provoking comments that contribute to an ongoing discussion. After your first comment goes through, which is often moderated (and occasionally fished out of spam – sorry, the system isn’t perfect), you can continue to comment. If a comment is deemed spam, particularly rude or dull it may be deleted.

Once your first post is approved, you are free to post again however often you’d like – it’s all about being adults.

Some examples of things to keep in mind:

* Stick to the arguments and remain civil.
* Concentrate your arguments against the strongest objections to your view.

Thanks to Notung for suggestions in that regard. You should also view the post by Camels With Hammers, called “Making My Comments Rules Explicit” for further pointers about use of language, particularly insulting names. In addition, the FAQ on a site called Captain Awkward is excellent in terms of caveat emptor.

You may find your comment fails to be posted because of:

* bullying, bigotry and harassment
* derailing
* not contributing to the topic at hand
* not positively advancing the discussion (e.g: sarcasm, speculations as to purpose that are orthogonal to the topic at hand)
* making threats
* creating a sock puppets or anon comments in some cases

Freedom of speech isn’t the same in Australia as it is in the USA. Nor should everyone else’s fun be ruined by comments that fail to maintain a standard of civility. I’m not into cursing either, so you might want to figure that into your efforts.

I also recommend My Method Of Dealing With Trolls: Block, Report, Delete, and the Token Skeptic interview with Cara Santa Maria on decreasing the negative influences of the internet – if you’re reading this for tips.

Guide to making all the things pretty:

* These tags <strong>make things bold</strong>
* These <em>give you italics</em>,
* Use these tags <a href=”http://www.tokenskeptic.org”>to make a link</a>, and
* <blockquote>this allows you to quote.</blockquote>

Use the button marked “Preview” make sure your comment looks how you want it to look.

Originally Published – July 20th, 2012 – updated September 16th.

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