by James A. Bacon
The comments section of Bacon’s Rebellion is a patch of the Wild West on the Internet. Laws and rules are frequently ignored. There are too many ad hominem attacks, too much skirting around profanity restrictions, too many excursions into rhetorical no-man’s land, and too many flaming wars. There’s gold in them thar hills — worthy comments that add value — but you have to sift through a lot of mud to find it.
I have given serious thought to shutting down the comments , but they serve an important function. They allow readers to supplement or contradict authors’ arguments with logic and evidence not contained in the posts. I especially value the stories readers tell based on their personal experiences. In the end I decided that I don’t want Bacon’s Rebellion to be a conservative echo chamber, and a vigorous comments section would prevent that.
With my new job, I no longer have the time to police the comments. But there’s a new sheriff in town. Welcome Carol Bova, whom regular readers will know as a long-time contributor. Her mission is to improve the tenor of the conversation and make the comments section a place more readers will want to visit — and even participate in.
The rules are simple:
- No profanity… No clever efforts to evade the restriction by substituting characters or using synonyms.
- No ad hominem attacks, no insulting other commenters.
- No wandering way off topic. Stick to the topics raised in the post or logical offshoots of those topics.
- No snark. Well, exceptionally witty snark might be given special dispensation, but routine, run-of-the-mill snark will be deleted.
Commenters are welcome to disagree vigorously — that’s what makes the comments interesting to read. But the dialogue must be civil, and it must introduce new logic or new evidence to the discussion.
I have asked Carol to patrol the comments more aggressively than I did. I expect there will be a lot of caterwauling when comments are deleted. Be assured that all points of points of view are welcome. They just must conform to the rules of civility and relevance.
