Comments Policy

I welcome discussion and debate on my blog posts and strongly encourage readers to participate in order to inform and enlighten (and make me feel like I’m getting attention!). There are certainly no delusions on my part that my writings will please everyone, so please feel free to offer corrections, dissent, and other points of view.

That said, there are a few basic rules:

  1. First, you don’t need approval to comment. Unfortunately, the flip side is that sometimes, the excellent Akismet spam filter makes the wrong diagnosis – especially if your comment really does sound spammy. In these cases, I may stumble upon your comment in the spam folder and approve it. However, given that I receive anywhere from 20 to 50 spam comments a day, I can make no guarantees.
  2. If your comment doesn’t appear, don’t assume you’re being censored. I don’t care to censor. Instead, please try to repost it and contact me about it.
  3. There is a “reply” option after every individual comment. This feature is called “threaded comments” and it exists for a reason. It makes long conversations much easier to follow. Please use it.
  4. Ad hominems are not exactly forbidden, because they are sometimes justified. However, it is better to fight the message, not the messenger. It is OK to call an argument an “idiotic proposition” (be sure to back that up with evidence, though!), but calling its proponent an “idiot” may be inaccurate and downright inappropriate. So please use judgment.
  5. Spam will be destroyed mercilessly.
  6. Do not post anything that could conceivably get my ass sued. Anything of that nature will get removed with extreme prejudice. Please take that outside or to other sites on teh internets.
  7. It is typically considered impolite to post off-topic messages on blog posts. If you want to address something, you have the use of Sublime Oblivion Forums – please take it there. Otherwise, I reserve the right to delete, truncate, or otherwise ignore these comments.
  8. Similarly, I reserve the right to ignore fact-challenged or conspiracy-centered comments as I see fit. :roll:
  9. Do not monopolize or hijack a conversation (including with irrelevant blather about how the court-appointed Russia friendlies may not have anything more valid to say than non-propped more deserving folks on the cultural, historical and political aspects of the country in question*).
  10. Do not type L1K3 7h15 or use 1337-abbrevs like “ur” (your) or “kkthxcya” (Ok, thanks, good bye). It’s not 2050 yet and this remains highly annoying 4 many ppl.
  11. I would prefer it if you could refrain from making consecutive posts, especially if they’re on the same topic. I will typically end up merging them together in such cases.
  12. Though I am skeptical about the PC movement and Sublime Oblivion is, by most standards, a bastion for free speech, there are still limits on what I can accept. Things like unbridled racism and sexism, hate speech and Holocaust denial are decidedly verboten, and are very likely to be censored.
  13. Similarly, I’ve grown tired of refuting rabid Russophobes, AGW deniers, and one-dimensional cornucopians. As Michael Corleone said, “Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in”. Argh! I’ll try my best to ignore you, though I can’t promise I’ll succeed.
  14. Swearing is permitted, since I trust the types of people who would read this site are mature enough to pass their erudite gaze over words like “fuck” without having an epileptic seizure. We all sometimes need to make a strong point that can’t be adequately conveyed within the boundaries of “decent” language. That said, I do encourage you to rise to the challenge.
  15. Comments on the Sublime Oblivion blog are subject to the same Terms and Conditions of Use as the Sublime Oblivion Forums.

* Yes, this is a “homage” to a once prolific commentator on this site.