Comment Guidelines

This blog is intended strictly for a mature audience.

As such, those under 18 should not be here at all, even with parental consent.

I am not a babysitter, nor will I become one just because some parents fail to properly supervise their children’s internet usage.

I do pre-moderate comments.

If your comment didn’t show up right away, then either you have been blocked from commenting here for  bad behavior, and you should know if that is the case, since you went out of your way to be abusive or offensive, or you have been tagged as a spammer by Akismet, or your comment has been accidentally caught in the spam filter for some other reason.  Legitimate comments caught in spam will be released as soon as I see them. I do not reject comments based on differing opinion. I strongly believe in social discourse.

I don’t care if you use your real name, or if you use a nickname; that decision is completely up to you.  Please do not post your name as “Anonymous” or any derivation thereof, though, since it causes confusion. It’s easy to just make up a nickname, so please, get creative and do that instead if you don’t want to use your real name.  I ask only that you choose one name and stick to it, and that you list your real email address and real url.  If you don’t have an url of your own, you don’t have to list one.

Definitely do not post under more than one name to pretend as if someone else agrees with you.  Not only is that extremely dishonest, it’s also extremely stupid because I will still know it’s you.

Do not use a nickname which is racially or sexually offensive, because that will get your comment deleted even if your comment is not offensive. Be creative, but be smart.

My blog is not your personal billboard.  Do not post urls here just to get people to click on ads, or to artificially inflate your incoming link count by posting a link which is irrelevant to the conversation.  If you do, I’ll just report your IP as spam, and delete the comment.

I also check embedded urls, including those associated with your username and email address.  If it’s advertising of any kind, or if it is clearly posted to artificially inflate incoming link counts, it will be reported as spam and the comment deleted.

If you want to be listed on my blogroll, then actively participate and I’ll be more than happy to add you.  I might even add you to my RSS feeds, if I like your blog.  What I will not do, however, is add you to my blogroll just because you promise to give me a reciprocal link.  I only add links to the blogroll if the owner regularly participates here, or if I believe the site is in some way interesting or useful.  To do otherwise is a slap in the face to those who have taken the time and effort to make thoughtful comments on this blog.

Overall, just bear in mind that participating here is roughly equivalent to walking into my house and talking to me, since this blog is also my property.  Just as I wouldn’t tolerate anyone attacking, abusing, offending, or annoying anyone in my home, I’m not going to tolerate it on my blog either.   If you do anything I feel falls into one of those categories, your comment(s) will be deleted, and I may also block you from commenting here further.

All that being said, just use courtesy and common sense when commenting here, and you will have no problems whatsoever.