Comments Policy

Comments on this site are moderated to prevent comment spam from spambots and to prevent blatant commercial messages. Specifically:

1. I appreciate comments. Comments are an important part of how we communicate in the OSR, and they add to the flavor and the tenor of the debate within the community. The door here is wide open: grognard or n00b, the welcome mat is out and I hope you feel free to add your two cents.

2. I delete spam. I use Blogger and Gmail's tools to eliminate as much spam as possible, but some still seeps in. I do have spam filters in place which automatically catch the majority of automated spam comments. That said, I don’t put up with obvious commercial-only messages that are only trying to plug a product (RPG-related or otherwise).

3. Relevant links are encouraged. If you want to point to a link on your own or someone else’s site that is relevant to the topic then please feel free to do so. This adds to the conversation and improves the blog. However, ecessive and/or inappropriate links (as deemed by me) will be deleted. Please double check your links, as links which return errors, lead to sites under construction, or cannot be loaded by the browser will be removed. And don't link to a page that requires Flash for navigation. I hate Flash, despite the fact that I use Issuu.com as a mirror for releases. Yeah, I'm shacking up with the devil on that one.

4. Irrelevant links are not encouraged. Comments with links that are not relevant to the post you’re commenting on could be deleted. Keep it on topic, please. Although I encourage the growth and depth of conversations, those conversations should emerge organically from the discussion underway and should not be highjacked by linkbaiting.

5. I encourage signatures in comments. As long as signatures are not excessive (no ASCII pictures, please) and abide by the above numerated policies regarding links, I'm cool with sigs. Mentioning your website in your signature is cool, but trying to push a product in your signature isn't.

6. Hitting the reset switch. I reserve the right to switch off comments on a per-post basis, or for the entire site if I so desire. I will not delete existing comments if it is technologically avoidable, but I make no guarantees. Deal.

Some Unsolicited Advice
When you comment on a blog, you are essentially visiting someone else's house and leaving an extremely public note on the door. In that sense, blog comments create a semi-permanent record of who you are, what you believe, and what you are willing to stand up for in the public sphere.

People like to hide behind the anonymity the Internet offers, and that anonymity often comes at the price of civility. This is especially true of American internet users, who assume 1) the internet is somehow separate from "meat space," and that 2) freedom of speech means they should always be able to speak their minds. Both of these are false assumptions. To begin with, the internet is part of global society and culture, and American arrogance turns off a lot of people in other countries who, quite frankly, are usually better educated than Americans in terms of what really is going on the world. We Americans tend to view the world through the lens of Empire—economic and otherwise. To assume your views are the right views is extremely arrogant, as your views are most likely tied to your particular experiences at a particular time in a particular place. The applicability of those views can only be tested through logic and reasoning, and not just taken at face value.

As to the second assumption, any third-rate lawyer slumming for pesonal injury cases on televison will tell you after consulting Wikipedia that the freedom of speech guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution only applies in the United States, and only to the federal government's ability to censor unsavory or unpopular speech acts—and even then, Congress can pass laws to limit your speech in certain situations (like making threats against the President's life—try it and see how fast the Secret Service finds out your online identity and shows up at your door). Freedom of speech does not apply to private entities, like blogs, which can censor anything they want. I don't want to censor any viewpoint I disagree with, but the comment policy for this blog provides a guideline as to what I deem acceptable and unacceptable in terms of the focus of this site.

In general, you shouldn't post things that you wouldn't feel comfortable saying to an armed Marine, your grandmother on her deathbed, or at a town hall meeting. Your use of language to communicate and persuade others matters—it's called Rhetoric, and it is an ancient art. If nothing else, remember that the comments you leave have the ability to build up or tear down your reputation. They really are a reflection of who you are and what you value—so take care, be gracious and polite, and make sure your comments add value not just to the conversation, but to your online presence.


This comment policy is adapted from the comments policy at ProBlogger.net. Please do not construe this as an endorsement of ProBlogger.net's content or practices.