Site Disclaimer and Comment Policy

DISCLAIMER:

With the exception of comments left by others, and materials used with permission and/or fair use exemptions and credited to others, content on this site comes from me. That is as it should be in my internet home. This is my place to make noise and flail. This may make you angry, if you do not agree with me. I promise you, I don’t care even a little. Differing opinions? Great! Suggestions that I am not allowed to hold my opinions and talk about them? Bullshit!

I accept responsibility for my opinions, and I am open to discussion if I’ve ignored my privilege, stuck my foot in my mouth, or otherwise shown my ass on the internet.

THAT BEING SAID: I am not obligated to accept abuse, harassment, or even petty annoyances in my home. I run this site. I will delete comments that are nasty (see below), I will block people, I will get distinctly cranky. I will not take my ball and go home because THIS IS HOME. People who are a problem will be made to leave. This is right and proper. I pay the bills, I make the rules.

Additionally, nothing I say here should be construed as legal or medical advice, a substitute for professional consultation, or an incitement to break the law. I’m qualified to talk about my own experiences, that’s it. I’m in charge only of myself, and sometimes even that’s debatable. If your planned excuse for any behavior is “Joyce said I should!”, I beg of you to reconsider. That is just a bad idea for everyone involved.

COMMENTS:

I’m thrilled to talk to my readers. I enjoy good discussions, sharing stories, and communal jumping up and down in excitement. I publish because I like knowing that people are reading my words and reacting to them.

Because trolls are a thing on the internet, I may have to respond to people behaving badly. If you write something that qualifies as hate speech or similar (based on gender, sexuality, race, nationality, ability, religion, etc.), say generally terrible shit, express bad opinions poorly, or do anything else that blatantly makes things unpleasant for me, I may:

  • delete you comment
  • moderate your future comment attempts
  • warn you to be less of an asshole
  • block you from the site
  • tell you where you can stick it

in no particular order and at my discretion. This is not a democracy; commenting is, ultimately, a privilege and not a right.

Moderating your behavior on my site is not censorship. For one, see above re: paying bills and making rules. I’m not obligated to tolerate bad behavior in my own spaces. For another, I have neither an army nor a legal system which will kill you, put you in jail, destroy your business, or otherwise penalize you for your opinions or infringe on your right to free speech. Buy your own site, say whatever you want, I’m not stopping you. I’m just not going to let you use my home as a free platform unless I want to.

XKCD said it best:

“I can’t remember where I heard this, but someone once said that defending a position by citing free speech is sort of the ultimate concession; you’re saying that the most compelling thing you can say for your position is that it’s not literally illegal to express.”

Free Speech, from xkcd.com
Used with permission (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License)

Remember: the internet is forever. You should worry about what might make me delete your comments before they see the light of day. You should worry much more about the comments you make that the world can see. Be your better selves, kids.

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