Don't Back Down

Recently I read this piece that addresses the ownership of blog comments. Since it's probably right on the money, I figured it's worthwhile if I made my comment posting policy a bit more clear up-front. I'll make this into a useful page at some point. For the time being, just pretend that it's well-known and available. Search on "comment copyright" and I'm sure you'll be able to find it again.

Anyone and everyone is welcome to post here. In fact, I recently even turned off the function that requires a name and email address. You don't want to post them, don't. Your choice. Interestingly, I have recently received a number of comments - not only useless trash but actual, thoughtful comments - from people who haven't provided any info about themselves. I don't know if they would have left comments if that info was required. I just found it interesting that it was such a popular choice.

If you choose to post a comment, realize one thing: This is my site, and I reserve the right to delete, edit, mutilate or otherwise render your comment into something completely different from what it was when you left it. In most every case, I will simply edit it a bit to clean up the comment for readability. Maybe a little line feed here or a capital there, that sort of thing.

On occasion I will remove an offensive word and replace it with a less offensive word or stars or something. Once in a while, I might remove the comment entirely because doing so simply renders the comment incomprehensible. This is a family joint. Deal with it.

As mentioned, you are not required to leave your name, email address or web site. If you leave your email, it will never intentionally be provided to anyone, and probably not even used, though I will sometimes reply to people directly with email, if a valid address is provided.

Since those things aren't required, don't leave them if you don't want to do so. But don't leave fake ones (even that oh-so-lovely about:blank that is recently more popular than ever). Just leave it blank. If I don't like your web site, generally for spammer-iffic reasons, I might take out your link.

You, of course, do not have to leave a comment. Just realize that by doing so you implictly agree to these conditions. It's your comment but it's my blog. I reserve the right to make conversations somewhat useful to people other than 12-year-old script kiddies. Thanks for understanding.