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A reminder of my policy on comments

February 22nd, 2009 · 5 Comments

As I’ve said here before, I try to keep this site as open as possible to all commenters whether I agree with them or not, think they’re making rational arguments or not, and whether they can spell or not. In general, I think that’s worked out well and it cheers me up when I wake up in the morning and read the generally thoughtful comments I get — others have told me they too appreciate the unusually civil and informed conversation on this blog.

However, as a service to everyone, I try to remove posts that stray into unrelated personal attacks or name-calling. I realize it’s not always easy to draw the line, since personal lives sometimes have a bearing on public jobs and it’s tempting to condemn, not just people’s opinions, but their intellectual abilities in general.

However, I am trying to stick, more or less, to parliamentary and parenting codes. Posters can criticize behaviour, but when they start criticizing the person — calling them idiots, slagging the job they’re doing as mothers, commenting on their personal relationships — I have always and will continue to remove posts. Any time I do that, the poster is welcome to repost with the personal comments removed.

If readers have any other comments or suggestions on this, I’d be happy to hear them.

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