last revision: 12/28/2010
Hi! Welcome to Comment Policy. Existence is Wonderful invites and welcomes discussion relevant to the subject matter of its posts. I like lively discussion! Especially when it is scientific! Or actually funny! Or just plain interesting! Or a combination of all those things!
However, seeing as pretty much anyone can go start their very own blog and post whatever they feel like posting, I do not consider myself obligated in the least to host a commenting free-for-all here.
Hence, the following parameters apply to EIW as far as comments are concerned:
(1) "Anonymous" comments *are* allowed. This means that being logged into blogger is not required to comment on Existence is Wonderful. I used to require a login but changed that policy in 2009 for accessibility reasons.
(2) Item (1) notwithstanding, I would like to request that if you must post without logging in, please sign your comments with some sort of distinguishing nickname. Or your initials. Or even initials that aren't actually yours. Or a single letter, like "A" or "J", or heck, even a number. Just something so that I don't end up dealing with five different "anonymouses" commenting on the same post and having to somehow guess who said what. That kind of thing gets incredibly confusing really quickly.
[Note that this is not a "demand", but a request, in order to increase accessibility for me on my own blog. If you cannot sign an initial or some distinguishing mark, or if feeling like you have to do so prevents you from posting at all, I am not going to hold it against you, just bear in mind I may not be able to respond.]
(3) Spam will of course be deleted as soon as I see it. I am not interested in your \/14gr4 or your c14l15 or your 100000 free pix, or in your Mega Colon Cleanse Super Herbal X Formula.
[I particularly despise the kind of spam where someone writes a brief, generic comment along the lines of "Hi! Interesting blog! This is the first time I am reading this blog! Thanks!" and then follows with a spammy URL. Fake nicey-nice marketing = fail.]
(4) Comments clearly intended to incite anger, embarrassment, or endless pointless argument will be terminated on sight. If you're that desperate for attention and/or acknowledgement, perhaps you'd be happier if you logged off the Internet and rescued a Yorkie or something.
(5) Disagreement is fine. Defamation is not. Gossip is not -- I'm not running a tabloid here, nor is this the bathroom wall down at the subway station. I don't care if you think Sally-Anne has cooties; take your speculations elsewhere, or better yet, find a new hobby that doesn't involve manufacturing controversies.
(6) It IS okay to go on tangents, quote at length, and go nominally off-topic if that strikes your fancy. I'm not picky about that sort of thing and I've been known to go on a tangent or three myself. I can understand being reminded of something based on reading something that doesn't look related at first.
HOWEVER, there are particular TYPES of "going off topic" that will not be given free reign here, the primary case of this being tangents related specifically to individual people. E.g., if I quote a biologist, and someone posts a comment linking to photos of said biologist wearing a bikini or Speedo, I will certainly delete that comment as I just don't like it when someone's physical attributes are brought into the picture when it's someone's work or words that my post actually concerned.
(7) Spirited discussion is fine, 300+ posts in which the participants are insulting each other's mothers is not. In other words, lengthy circular arguments between individuals who obviously aren't going to be understanding each other anytime this century will not be hosted here.
(8) Remember that nobody owes you attention or any sort of response whatsoever just because you've posted a comment on a blog. I reserve the right to ignore and/or delete any and all comments that are (if not outright spam) inane, annoying, threatening, defamatory, etc. If this hurts your feelings, you probably need help, and I'm neither equipped nor inclined to provide that here.
(9) Repeatedly asking questions (especially very personal or off-topic ones) bugs me. This is at least partly a quirk on my part and to an extent you shouldn't take it personally if I start ignoring or deleting your questions.
However, if you've been (trollishly OR seriously) trying to ask me for dates, or if you're focusing on personal appearance in your inquiries, or if you're demanding that I explain this or that aspect of autism from a first-hand perspective, you should expect those comments to disappear without response or explanation from me. Remember, if you find yourself suffering uncontrollable crying, sleeplessness, despair, ingrown toenails, tapeworm, or other discomfort due to not getting the attention you feel entitled to, there is help for you out there.
(10) TBD (pending further updates)
:D
7 comments:
I admit it, I spent quite a bit of time resisting the urge to make an ironic comment like "Do you want to buy my Mega Colon Cleanse Formul4?" but decided not to. And also, would have liked to have written a ; with mega font size.
It is nice to see defined etiquette in the online comment world. Albeit it always seems to be changing. I think once people reveled in the anonymity of the internet, and being able to say anything, which is odd since most people also carry fears of privacy invasion and loss of anonymity...
I'd like to thank Anne for her (now sadly defunct) podcast series:
http://wonderfulexistence.podcastspot.com/
Paul House: Hehehe, I knew I was setting myself up for potential snark with some of those. :P Thank you for avoiding the mega font-size, though.
And, yeah, I figure that everyone should be free to set their own comment etiquette on their own blog(s). For me it's important to at least state a few guidelines...there are plenty of places online people can go if they want to have a free-for-all, but those kinds of environments usually baffle me and make it hard to have an actual discussion.
Hehe, mega colon cleanse... that was funny.
Sounds like a good policy to me.
I also hate those fake comments type spam on things. That is so annoying. It's more annoying than regular spam.
FrF: The podcast was really mostly an experiment to see if I could do it, but it turned out to be too much work for too little output. I can say a lot more in writing than I can plan out to say in talking, that's for sure. But it was fun to try at least.
Also a note to anyone who didn't know I'd done that podcasting experiment: please don't assume if you listen to those podcasts that I still agree with everything I said in them. I probably agree with a lot of it but my opinions have changed over time, particularly regarding anything pertaining to "transhumanism".
Fleecy: What's amusing me to consider now is that people might end up at this blog *searching* for Mega Colon Cleanse. I'm a bit frightened...o_0
And, yeah, those "fake nice" spammy comments just really irritate me to no end. It reminds me of telemarketers who call and practically DEMAND to know if you're having a good day and sounding all perky-chirpy before launching into their "buy this plz" tirade. It's funny, because I am often really bad at detecting things like sarcasm and when people are "kidding around" IRL (and am often very literal) but I can spot marketing a mile away.
Oh my. That would be funny. 'want to buy mega colon cleanse... [gets search results] ... Huh? A blog? What does this have to do with cleaning my colon?'
I am much the same. It's taken me years to be able to detect 'joking around' and not get very (needlessly) upset at joking, and even now I usually need to be somewhat familiar with a person before I really start to get when they are joking and when they aren't. I've found a useful method is if somebody says something, and if I can't tell if they are joking, I just ask. (Be wary, however, not everyone is honest when asked that kind of question)
But marketing and sales pitches tend not to work well on me - especially "high pressure sales pitch" is a great way to make me walk off.
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