I don't have the resources to get a comment "sheriff" going on this blog, like the Marmot has, but I've made a new rule, which I've decided to announce here.
In the interest of getting more people to comment and feel safe from being attacked by merciless trollsters, and to reduce the back-and-forth bickering (as opposed to real debating) that, at times, drags my comment section into a list of just two people goign back-and-forth, I've instituted some new rules.
While I generally don't erase posts or comments, and have only ever erased 2 comments on this blog, one of them in relation to a potentially libelous statement I made, I will start deleting abusive comments immediately, and permanently banning their authors as a matter of course.
This doesn't apply to the vast majority of you reading this blog, but I wanted to make it clear, so that more of you might be encouraged to post comments. Also, this is a blog, not The New York Times, and I have been more than tolerant of allowing various opinions to be posted and remain posted here in the comments section, to a fault. Even the rabid anti-Semitism of recent weeks or racist comments about me have been left up.
So the cries of "illiberalism" or "censorship" are pretty baseless and silly. You can say whatever you want that is on topic and engages the conversation, but you start attacking and calling names, pepper your comments with slurs against entire nations or peoples, and you get banned and your comments erased.
And reporting abuse to ISP's is a click away, as well. You'd be surprised at how much information is tracked in wherever you go on the Internet.
To all my civil and thoughtful readers, thanks for coming to this blog.
