Comments

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You’ll find the policy of TPV regarding comments at this link.

I’ve also included it below:

I have The Passive Voice set up so I have to OK the first comment from someone who has not had an approved comment before. I try to check regularly during most days, so if you’re a newbie, your comment should appear relatively soon after you post it.

If you’re commenting from the hemisphere that includes Europe, Asia and Africa, I usually check comments early in the U.S. morning and approve any that come in overnight.

After one approved comment, any comments you make thereafter are automatically approved, subject to later zapping for egregiousness.

Once in awhile, I discover a valid comment that gets caught in the spam filter. However, sometimes I don’t have the time to check everything in the spam bucket before deleting, so don’t be offended if you make a comment and it doesn’t show up. Shoot me an email via the Contact page if you think your comments are not appearing when they should.

The rules on comments are simple. You can disagree with me or others, but be reasonably civil and non-abusive. I’m a bit old-fashioned on language, but if you want to use asterisks or a substitute word, that solves my problem. I use a plugin that catches some language and inserts its own asterisks.

As is obvious, The Passive Voice is generally about writing, publishing and the people who do it. I’m not going to be a Nazi about on-topic, etc., but if you want to talk about investing in gold coins, your bargain-basement SEO consulting fees or enhanced sexual prowess, please take those conversations elsewhere.

If you’re an author, publisher, agent, etc., a low-key commercial announcement is OK from time to time, but don’t go crazy. I don’t mind relevant links in comments, but will zap comments and commenters that link to spam.

My spam filter catches zillions of spam comments each day. If you’re a spammer and somehow get through, I’ll send your comments to the Delta Quadrant and sic all the Nigerian princesses on you.

If any comment policies are vague or seem unreasonable, talk to me via the Contact page. If you see a comment that you think crosses the civility line, please let me know via the Contact page.

Passive Guy

And a new addendum:

PG will add that it is possible (and highly desirable) to disagree with thoughts expressed by another commenter without including your opinion of the commenter herself/himself/etc.self.

If someone is trying to win another over to a particular point of view or to encourage them to examine a topic or issue from a different perspective, opining that the other is stupid, ignorant, etc., is far from the best strategy. Others reading the exchange are more likely to dismiss the opinions of someone who adopts a practice of belittling the beliefs of others simply because of the manner in which that someone expresses an opinion.

There are almost 60,000 registered users on TPV and unanimity of opinion on any topic within a group this size is an impossibility.

PG hasn’t deleted any accounts for a long time, but he won’t hesitate to do so if he perceives that someone’s comments have crossed the line of acceptability. Although PG is an attorney, he won’t write a statute describing where that line is. If someone crosses the line, PG will know it when he sees it.

 

4 thoughts on “Comments”

  1. *likes this Mike Pence quote*

    “Years ago on my radio show, I used to say, ‘I’m a conservative, but I’m not in a bad mood about it.’ I’ve always believed that civility in heavy doses is essential in self-government.”

  2. It should also be possible to discuss ideas without getting personal. It’s not as if anybody here is arguing for mass murder…?
    If nothing else, debatable ideas can spawn pretty good stories.

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