A note on comments

The Internet is an amazing place where people can freely exchange ideas and information. Over the past week, my blog has experienced an incredible amount of traffic. With that traffic comes a very small minority of readers who take it upon themselves to hide behind the anonymity of the Internet to post inflammatory remarks in an effort to either promote themselves or start flamewars in my comments section.

I believe the Internet, and my blog in particular, should not be a place where unpopular thoughts or opinions are screened or edited. For that reason, I do not require users to register with an e-mail address. Some have taken advantage of this policy to attack me, other readers, or people or issues I write about. Users who do this will have their posts deleted, their IP banned, and their abuse will be reported to their service provider.

My comments section logs the IP address of every commenter. Users who abuse my belief in the free exchange of ideas and commentary will lose their privilege to participate in that belief.

While I choose to not use profanity in my posts, I don’t necessarily mind if you use profanity in your comments if that language is used to amplify an otherwise well thought out sentiment. I will not prohibit you based solely on the language or content of your comments, but I will delete and ban you if you flame or threaten me, my readers, or fellow bloggers who I link to.

If you must flame any blogger’s comments sections (or via e-mail) don’t do it anonymously. It is cowardly and reveals a great deal about you.

As always, I want to hear from you. I want to hear your thoughts on my posts and my commentary. But I urge you to play nice and be respectful. This is my house.

Thanks to Tony Pierce for teaching me the best communication is open communication.