I never thought I’d need to implement something like this but here goes. Also note that this is just version 0.1 of the rules, let’s see how it works out.
I have open comments on most of my blog posts. It’s incredibly rare anyone takes the time to make use of them, so this hasn’t been an issue before. I want to preface this by saying that I don’t believe that “if you can’t say something nice, you shouldn’t say anything at all”. I can be a sarcastic, abrasive, snarky asshat when I want to be. In a former life I was one of the angriest kiddies online, or at least on Edinburgh University’s IRC server. It’s not something I’m proud of, but it happened. The thing is though, that there’s a time and a place for it. This is my website – I write the content, I maintain it, I pay for the hosting. This is not an open platform for your message, I work on this site so that I can spread my message. If you decide that my message is a load of shit, then you are free to get your own website and call me out about it on there. But you’re not welcome to do it here.
With that said, I don’t want to close off comments, or remove any comment that doesn’t agree with my point of view. Different points of view are a good thing. Discussion and debate is great – engaging with people is amazing. But so is being positive in the way you do it. So here’s the house rules:
- Try not to be a dick.
- No dick-ish anonymous posts
People get into arguments. I’m not expecting all that many cos I don’t get that many comments – I keep my fights and a lot of my contentious opinions confined to Twitter anyhow. But still, fights happen. People who go too far will be moderated, but I don’t have the energy or time to sit monitoring a website waiting for an angry word to be said.
However, people who say things anonymously are likely to be moderated a lot harder. Firstly, if I don’t know who you are, I don’t know if you are a dick, or you’re just coming across as a dick this one time, so I’m going to play it safe. Secondly, I’m very much in favour of having a very transparent discussion. Everything I write, everything I say, goes out with my name attached to it. I’ve built a career by standing behind my opinions. While you’re in my virtual-house, I ask that you do the same.