I welcome any and all feedback you may have. That said, commenting remains a privilege, not a right, and I can take that privilege away from anyone, at any time, for any reason. I try to wield this power with fairness and consistency, which is why I’ve included the following commenting guidelines. Failure to abide by them may land you in The Dungeon.
The rules are, in no particular order:
No trolling.
For anyone new to the Internet who doesn’t know, trolling is the act of leaving messages intended solely to incite anger and generate conflict (not to be confused with commenters who honestly espouse unpopular opinions). Trolls get banned without a second thought.
No spamming.
Spam takes two forms: Junk advertising, such as plugs for unrelated websites, and obnoxiously repetitive material such as copy-pasted comments or motor-mouthing – too many comments in a row from the same person make for a cranky moderator. Try to keep your posts pertinent. Obvious spam will be deleted and repeat offenders may be banned if they don’t heed my warnings.
No excessive vileness.
I have no issue with righteous invective, but there are limits. I expect a certain standard of discourse on this blog, and whilst the occasional oath-laced rant is fine, anyone whose apparent goal is to make my eyes bleed may be told to clean up their act. Refusal to do so may result in comment deletion, and if they persist, in banning.
No threats of violence.
I’m sure I don’t really need to point this out, but: Threats of violence are illegal. So don’t make any, period. Such messages are instantly deleted and their authors may receive a single and final warning before I ban them, depending on my mood. In addition, threats may also be reported to law enforcement.
Just don’t piss me off.
I am the benevolent dictator of Preliator; my power is absolute and my word is law. Even a commenter who doesn’t specifically break any aforementioned guideline(s) may still be booted if they irritate me enough, and that’s that. Remember that a blog is akin to a metaphorical living room: Everyone’s welcome to hang around and chat, but someone who aggravates the host runs the risk of being kicked to the curb.
- To fix broken links and other formatting issues;
- To delete duplicate (“double-posted”) comments;
- To delete or disemvowel trolling, threatening and other rule-breaking comments; and
- To purge any comments posted by blacklisted individuals trying to evade their ban.
Registered IntenseDebate users may edit their own comments, so long as they haven’t received replies.
Registration is not required; anonymous comments are fine, and there is no pre-moderation on this blog. That said, both of these may change if the volume of spammy or trolling comments becomes difficult to manage.
The comments are for you, folks. Go and make them interesting.
01/10/18 7:32 AM ET
