In light of some recent conversation about my blog (both in the blog-world, on various blogs and with people I love and respect), I’ve decided to come up with a commenting policy for this blog. As this blog is my blog, I ask that you respect this policy. I understand that having your comments deleted on a blog can be frustrating, so hopefully if readers follow this policy, I won’t have to delete comments.
One of the hopes for this blog is that it might be a place where honest dialogue may take place. Many have accused me of intellectual dishonesty and having a lack of consistency in the past with deleting comments and banning. I haven’t been completely consistent, and for that, I apologize. However, it is my desire that this be a space for dialogue and the sharing of ideas. Because of that, dissenting opinions will be found in the comments, I am aware of that; my hope is that people will come to the table with convictions to share as well as being willing to listen.
Below are some guidelines for commenting on this blog:
- Since comments are desired to generate conversation, comments are not allowed which include, or are primarily, personal attacks against those referenced in a post, others who are involved in the conversation or the author. Any comment that is construed as a personal attack will be deleted. This will give the author of that comment a chance to republish their comment in a way
that allows for constructive dialogue. If the commenter leaves a second comment that is a personal attack, that comment will be deleted, and they will be banned from the blog. Banning someone should be a last resort, but will happen if the commenter can’t post comments according to this guideline. - Anonymous comments are not allowed. Initials are acceptable, but they must be accompanied with a valid email address or personal website/blog address. Anonymous comments will be deleted, unless a legitimate reason is given for the anonymity.
- I reserve the right to write posts that do not have the option for commenting. I may do this because:
- I expect that the exact same argument will take place that has already taken place on a number of occasions on the blog;
- The purpose of that post is simply to share information;
- The conversation has gone a direction that is completely unrelated to the post and is not being productive in any sense of the word.
- If a post does not have an option for comments, it is inappropriate to leave comments underneath OTHER unrelated posts; such comments will be deleted.
I hope that regular readers and commenters of pomomusings will see that this is an acceptable policy. I will be consistent according to this policy with my interaction with comments. I hope that this blog will be a safe place where conversation and dialogue will be able to occur. If you can’t agree to the above guidelines, I would ask that you would refrain from posting comments. It is my hope that this would help guide us in our conversations, that we would truly be able to make space for the Other and that we would find out more about ourselves and others through these conversations.
