With his permission, I have borrowed heavily from Andrew Leigh [1] in my thoughts about a suitable policy on comments.
- Please aim to keep comments civil, concise and relevant. I enjoy robust debate but have little time or tolerance for personal attacks. I recognize that the distinction between an argument about an idea and an attack on the person who proposed the idea is sometimes hazy but I am more likely to err on the side of deleting a borderline comment than leaving it. Repeat offenders will be banned entirely.
- If you think that a comment crosses the fuzzy line, you are welcome to email me through the contact page (which I hope to have operational by 5 September 2009). The only reason for not publishing my email address here is to avoid spam, not to prevent people from contacting me.
- I will remove comments with commercial links, or links that are only vaguely relevant. If you have a personal blog and include a link to your blog in your comment, I am likely to leave it.
- I prefer that all commenters use their full real name, including surname. It makes life easier for me!
- I will allow pseudonymous or semi-anonymous (first-name-only) comments provided that the commenter supplies a valid email address. I might verify that an email address is actually attached to a living person rather than simply appears in a legal email format.
- In the case of pseudonymous or semi-anonymous posting, the usual rule of one pseudonym per person applies. Rule #1 will be applied more strictly for anyone posting from behind the veil of anonymity.
- I expect to read all comments but to respond far less often. I appreciate that responding to comments is part of building a community with blogging but time is a scarce resource. If I do respond to comments it is more likely that not that it will be in the form of a new posting promoted by an interesting idea suggested by a comment (commenter).
[1] Leigh, A. (2009). Comments policy. Published as http://andrewleigh.com/?p=2143. Viewed on 29 August 2009.