Disclaimer & Comments

Site Disclaimer:

This is my blog. These are my opinions. Opinions that aren’t mine (or anything that’s not mine) will be properly sourced and linked back, if possible.

You might not agree with my opinions. This is fine. You may even say you don’t agree with my opinions, to me, on my blog. (See “Comment Policy” below.) You might even get offended by my opinions, or by my response your offense at my opinions should you choose to make them known to me. This is also fine.

But don’t expect me to change. I’m like the wind, baby.

Privacy Policy:

I am not collecting your information, and I don’t want to. The website only gathers whatever it needs from you to give you a decent reading experience and make sure anything you write on here gets attributed properly. You are solely responsible for whatever private information of yours that you choose to share through your comments, but I will intercede if it appears you’re sharing someone else’s private information without their consent.

Comment Policy:

As of this writing (December, 2022) this site is lightly moderated for comments. This means that anyone who has had a comment approved may post comments on any article they wish, and for the most part, the only comments that will be held or deleted will be from spambots.

I don’t expect this will always be the case, so I’m laying down a comment policy ahead of time. To wit:

1. I own this blog. It’s mine. (See the Site Disclaimer above.) I’m more than happy to share it with you and read what you have to add, but you’re doing so at my pleasure. You don’t have a right to post here. The First Amendment only covers your ability to have an opinion and voice it, not where you can do so. If I decide your presence is not constructive to the discussion at hand, I won’t put up with it. Because this is my blog.
2. As far as I know, the comments after your first comment shouldn’t be put in the moderation queue automatically. So if your post doesn’t show up right away then it’s because either a.) you accidentally triggered a spam filter, in which case I’ll try to fix it but your comment might get thrown out with the trash, or b.) you pissed me off with your frequent Comment Policy violations and I’m actively moderating your input until I’m sure you can be trusted again.
3. I really like a wide range of ideas and opinions in the comment threads. I will totally allow comments through from people who disagree with me. They do, however, have the follow the same rules as everyone else. The rules are:
   1. No abuse. If you are actively abusing or attempting to abuse a fellow commenter (or me) your post will be deleted. Sexual abuse, emotional abuse, other kinds of abuse, it’s all eminently delete-able. Also, you don’t need to be targeting a single person or even a person participating in the comments section to have your abusive post deleted. If your post is abusive based on race, sex, gender identity, political affiliation, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, or really anything else for which an individual can be targeted for abuse, it will be deleted. If you feel like you’re being abused, let me know.
   2. Use your words. If you’re posting in my comment threads, I assume you have enough of a primary school education to have a rudimentary knowledge of spelling and grammar. Mistakes are one thing; I make them all the time. Maybe English isn’t your first language. But you should strive to make your point clear. If I can’t tell you’re trying to make a comment in good faith, I won’t hesitate to delete it. I’m also not a fan of just posting a GIF as a response, but I’ll let it pass so long as it’s not pornographic or otherwise obscene and is relevant.
   3. Do your own work. If you want to post a link to something to back up your position, that’s fine. Quoting select sections is also fine. Just make sure you’re attributing properly. (Which, on the Internet, seems to be a title or creator name and a link.) If you post large sections of text of someone else’s work without attribution, I’m going to assume you’re plagiarizing and delete your comment. And probably ban you. We’ll talk about that in a bit.
   4. Don’t sell your work. If your blog or book or latest summer blockbuster has some relevance to the topic at hand, I might give you a pass on this one. But in general, there’s no reason to shamelessly plug your own work except being disruptive for selfish reasons.
   5. Stay on topic. If the post is about narrative structure in story theory, I don’t expect to see anyone talking about the latest sports upset or some new video game (unless it’s related to story theory). If a topic attracts your attention so much that you want to insert it into every conversation, regardless of relevance, then maybe you should find a relevant topic. Or, and I’m just throwing this out there, start your own blog.
   6. No trolls. You know what trolling is, and if you don’t, there’s an entire Internet out there to educate you. I’m not going to put up with it, and persistent trolls will get banned.
4. So, banning. I’d rather not have to do this at all. If your post violates this comment policy, I would rather edit it and call you out on your mistakes or delete it outright than ban you from ever commenting again. That said, there are people in this world who can’t take a hint and don’t know when to back down, and if you’re one of them, I might have to ban you. And if you’re just trolling around, I will gleefully ban you.
5. I’m almost as against editing as I am against banning, but I might go in to fix something if it’s really bad. I’ll never remove links or information from your post that wouldn’t have gotten your comment deleted earlier in the process. Also, to the best of my ability, I will keep the comments made on my blog around, so I recommend you not write anything here that you don’t want coming up in a political campaign 20 years down the road.
6. I plan on being as active in comments as my time allows. As I mentioned, I’m not afraid of disagreement or even criticism, but I tend to respond in kind. If you’re polite, I’ll be polite. If you’re being an asshole, I’ll probably be an asshole right back. If you’re wrong, I’ll try to correct you. If you get personal, well, I don’t have to stand for that kind of abuse on my own blog (see Site Disclaimer and Comment Policy #1).