Welcome to my blog and Google Plus stream. I am happy that you are interested in commenting on my posts, because I am always interested in feedback, facts, and other view points.
To ensure a good experience for everyone, though, comments on my posts are subject to moderation.
Guidelines
You are a guest here. I have invited you and welcomed you, but that does not change the fact that you are still a guest. You are here on my good will, and I can just as easily remove you.
Be civil and respectful towards everyone. If you can not show respect for another commenter, it is likely best not to comment at all.
Do not use sexist, homophobic, racist, transphobic or similar discriminatory language. It is disrespectful and actively harmful to a community. Do not use it even as a joke. This is a public forum, and it’s difficult to understand how you mean such things without knowing you well, so make it easier for others to not misunderstand you and simply avoid such language.
If at any point I feel that your comment might endanger or derail a constructive debate, I will delete it. You have been warned.
All of these rules and guidelines are subject to change at a whim, and I will ignore them when I feel like it. They’re guidelines, not laws.
FAQ
Q: Can I re-post a comment you deleted?
A: If you feel like your comment was valuable to the debate, you can repeat it, but put in an honest attempt to keep flame baits, derision, insults and abuse out of it.
If you are unsure, you can even include an explicit statement that you are sorry that it came across badly—sometimes, culture differences or difficult topics can cause misunderstandings. Showing an effort at trying to communicate in a civilized manner is surprisingly effective.
Insulting me or trying to nitpick about whether a deletion was warranted or not on the other hand does not tend to work particularly well.
If you have an interesting thought that might derail the discussion from the original topic a bit too far, do feel free to create your own post on that and link to it from a comment, inviting others to join your discussion.
Q: Am I being censored?
A: You are being “censored” in the same way being asked to not sing in a library, being kicked out of a bar for yelling and insulting the bar tender and other patrons, or Jehovah’s Witnesses not being welcomed to your party to tell you and your guests about God is “censoring” any of them.
That is, no, you are not, unless you define “censorship” in such a broad and all-inclusive way that it loses most of its meaning. Incidentally, calling this “censorship” shows a remarkable lack of understanding of actual censorship.
Q: Did you delete my comment because I disagreed with you?
A: Highly unlikely. Your comment was most likely deleted because it was not constructive or respectful. Just because it also disagreed with me does not mean you somehow have special rights to ignore the comment policy.
Q: Why did you delete my comment asking civilly why another comment was deleted?
A: Trying to discuss or question moderator decisions mostly serves as further derailing of the discussion. Feel free to start a private post with me alone and ask why I deleted your comment. Though the likely reason is, “it was not civil and respectful.”
