Comment Policy

Up until now we really haven't felt the need to articulate any sort of comment policy or terms of use, mostly because we get so few comments from people other than ourselves that it seemed unnecessary (the truth hurts.) But as of late we've gotten some more attention from new readers, and I've had to go back and delete comments here and there. So, in the interests of clarity: Our blog comment policy is pretty liberal. We don't ban people from our blog (though I may enable comment moderation at some point for limited times if necessary.) We don't delete or edit your comments just because you don't agree with us (even if we think you're a dishonest partisan hack of any persuasion.) We also won't delete comments simply because people are being rude and disorderly and not behaving like proper young ladies and gentleman; blog discourse standards require a little "flexibility" when it comes to comments being made by people who don't see each other and may be totally anonymous. Debates get a little heated, feelings get hurt, etc., etc., but as long there's a substantive point to be made in all the rancor, then it's okay. This goal is civil discourse, but it's easy to get carried away sometimes and we understand that. That being said, comments that rise to the level of abusiveness or flat-out hostility, will promptly be deleted. We're not going to have people having insult exchanges on our blog, or one-timers showing up to do a drive-by insult or threat of us or any commentator of any political leaning and then disappearing into the vastness of the internet. If in the midst of writing a comment you have to wonder whether it will run afoul of this rule, then your suspicions are almost certainly correct and you should just go ahead and try to be nicer or not say anything at all (as mama says.) Also, don't leave a comment that violates this rule just to chuckle about it before it gets deleted. We'll delete it and insult you in the process, and delete any follow up comments you might have as you vainly try to one-up us. Trust me, on this blog WE always have the final word if we so desire. These two "rules" should lead you to realize that comments must have some amount of substance to them, and they must be relevant to the post you're commenting on or something that would reasonably be discussed on this blog (penis-enhancing pills don't count, for example.) Basically, this means we don't accept spam comments, comment self-promotion of yours or somebody else's blog, or other substance-less comments. Also, don't leave a link to somebody else's blog or your own, without explaining why you've left that link...otherwise we'll rule it "substance-free" promotion, and delete it. Note: completely incoherant comments may rise to being substance free, if no one can possibly understand what your point is. But if you're being nice, we'll let your comment stay anyway, because we're just cool like that. As you may notice, we don't mind anonymous comments. We believe in anonymity as well relatively unmoderated speech. However with great freedom comes great responsibility, and we may call you out for not having the balls to sign your name or pseudonym to a comment, and the chance of this happening rises proportionately to the rudeness of your comment. Also, do not assume your anonymity will protect you from any negative consequences of your comment (see #7 below.) And I shouldn't have to say this, but we assume no liability for any comments made on this blog. We do our best to police this blog, but our failure to promptly delete (or delete at all) a comment you find offensive, is NOT an endorsement of that comment. Also, please NEVER take any legal advice from any commentators on this blog (or us for that matter!) If you have a problem with a comment someone has made, please email us and let us know as we don't always promptly check comments on this blog. If you want to know if it's okay to post a comment, feel free to ask; it WILL be approved if you don't violate the above rules, even if you're not being nice to us. I don't EVER anticipate having a problem with this, but just in case...if the authorities ever come around wanting to know something about anyone who leaves a comment on our blog, what information we might have that they can't obtain on their own (which won't be much if anything) will be disclosed to them. Although we are interested in protecting our own rights to free speech, we are not interested in sticking up for the rights of anonymous commentators who want to leave defamatory or otherwise illegal comments on our blog. Be aware that by leaving a comment on our blog, you are agreeing to these terms of use. If you don't like our comment policy, then don't leave a comment (although you're welcome to read the blog and email us if you like.) In other words, the whole point of a blog comment thread is to expound upon the topic being discussed, and provide some measure of knowledge and enlightenment to us and other readers. Try to keep that in mind, and you should be okay. Update: Nat-Wu here. We want to clarify that this should not in any way discourge anyone from leaving comments, even anonymously. But we will not allow thread hijacking. That pretty much covers what Xanthippas already wrote, but in case it's not 100% clear, comments on posts must pertain to the subject of the post. It's not that we don't want or allow people who disagree with us to have a voice. But if someone is looking at our blog, the idea is that when they're researching a topic they will see further arguments in that topic thread and perhaps links and just general discussion. Abuse, of course, is not allowed. Again, lest you think we're not open-minded, we have had guest bloggers write for use before with different points of view from us. We don't mind that. And if you have a topic you want us to talk about (such as Hugo Chavez and media bias for or against him) you should contact us at twisemen@gmail.com (the link is just below our banner on the right side of the main page). Or if you just want to write us and tell us we're full of shit (which has happened), just write us an email. We might actually respond to that, but if you just want to put abusive, harassing, or completely off-topic comments in a post, too bad, the sentence is summary deletion for all. You're all grown-up net-users, so it's obvious that netiquette applies as much here as anywhere. Oh, and in case it wasn't clear, we don't care much about language so much as substance, but certain minimum standards of grammar, spelling, and syntax must be met. Don't write us messages like you'd send a text message: "BshChaney r so dum". Thank you.