Graham English

Living Room Rules

Much has been written about the psychology of cyberspace and how it can cause people to forget their manners. That’s why I’ve instituted a Living Room Rules comment policy on this blog, inspired by Naked Conversations.

1. No anonymous comments. If you can’t put your name behind your comments, then they probably aren’t worthy of being published.
2. Be polite. Don’t use rude language.
3. No personal attacks allowed, at me or any other commenter.
4. No solicitations, spam, or advertisements. External links must be on topic and support the original article.
5. No heckling. Go troll YouTube some more.
6. RTFA
7. Practice compassion and the Golden Rule.
8. Bottom line: respect this space as you would respect the home of a friend who invites you over for coffee.

I will delete any comment that I feel does not fit my guidelines.

The question of free speech via BoingBoing.net:

Q. I can’t believe that Boing Boing, of all places, would be using censorship. What happened to freedom of speech?

A. Boing Boing is steadfast in its support of your freedom of speech. We believe that you, O Reader, should be able to have (or refuse to have) anything you want on your own website, as long as it doesn’t deprive others of their rights. Yay, freedom of speech!

By that same token, freedom of speech also means that the people who write and edit Boing Boing have the right to have (or refuse to have) anything they want on their own website. If one of the things they don’t want is a comment that you have posted, they aren’t depriving you of your freedom of speech. You’re free to put that comment up on your own webpage.