Content Policy

While I try to maintain a forum that is as open as possible to the exchange and discussion of ideas, I do have a few guidelines that I request you adhere to. Please remember that this site is being offered at a fairly substantial personal expense, and that it has only one owner/web master and two administrators right now. With that in mind, I reserve the right to edit, move or remove any material posted on this site for any reason without necessarily providing an explanation. I also reserve the right to approve, deny or revoke memberships as seen fit, also without explanation. For the most part, I will try not to exercise these rights, and if I do, I will try to provide a reasonable explanation. Many of the things that would call for the red pen or a boot from the site are detailed in the list below. Also check the Privacy Policy for more information.

The Rules

1. Spam will not be tolerated. You are welcome to link to other sites, including your own, provided a) the link has something to do with the issue at hand and b) you place the link in context. Messages such as "Check this out!" will be deleted, and the poster will be placed on the spammer watchlist. Repeat offenses will lead very quickly to membership termination. For more on this point, see "A Note on Comments" below.
2. Pornography won't even get you a warning. Posting pornographic material or links thereto is grounds for immediate membership revocation. This includes photographs, videos and text. If you're not sure whether something qualifies as pornography, run it by an administrator first (although the fact that you're uncertain about it raises the question of why you want to post it in the first place).
3. The impact of profanity wanes with its abuse. When used wisely, profanity can be very expressive and convey strong emotion. Each time you use it, on the other hand, you lessen its impact. For instance, I (Brian) rarely curse while speaking. As a result, everybody generally stops what they're doing and pays attention to what I'm saying on the rare occasion where I do unpack my four-letter vocabulary. When occasions to use strong language arise, I strongly encourage you to use it. On the other hand, remember that the less you use it, the more seriously your point will be taken when you do. Because the administrators would like this site to be blocked by as few filters as possible, we ask you to be strategic in your use of expletives.
4. "Professional courtesy" applies to everyone. Be courteous to other members, and try to be professional in your own postings. How well you present yourself is doubly important on the Internet, as people have only your words with which to judge you. We'd also like this site to be accessible in schools, and their content filters tend to frown on things like curses.
5. Grammar, punctuation and syntax are your friends. The administrator personally refuses to read Email that isn't written to be legible. Constructs such as sentences and words are not optional parts of the English language, and most people h8 trying 2 d-cifer txt. Remember that everyone else is probably just as busy as you, so why should they be expected to take the time to decode your writing?
6. Think before you act. Think twice before you speak. In other words, please make sure that your words are well thought-out and chosen carefully, and that you have researched an issue sufficiently before writing about it. Your opinion is welcome, of course, but try to distinguish it from the facts you present. Also, never forget that you might very well be wrong. It happens more often than you think.

A Note on Comments

In true capitalist fashion, the sophistication and innovation of spammers continually increases to match the complexity of the filters and algorithms used to block it. One of the more creative attempts I've seen employed on this site was a spam-bot that would identify a unique noun in the text, query the Wikipedia, and then post a comment containing a block of text from the Wikipedia article (with a link to whatever product the spammer was advertising, of course). The increasing sophistication of this spam sometimes makes it difficult for me to identify whether a comment is genuine or not. Generally, I try to give the person posting the comment the benefit of the doubt. If they're going to take the time to write a decent or thoughtful comment here, I have no problem with them including a link to their web site, even if it is a commercial site. On the other hand, if the comment doesn't seem to make sense, or is something trite like "Great post, thanks for sharing this!" followed by said link, I'm more apt to delete it. I apologize to anyone who has their comments deleted under such circumstances. You are always welcome to try again, or to send me a message in those instances.

Gender in Pronouns

For a while, I used what I thought was a clever computer programming-inspired construct to avoid gender bias in pronouns. Rather than he or she, I would use (s)he, and rather than his or her, h(er|is). 1 Other site members soon pointed out that this is extremely irritating to read, and suggested I change it. I tried switching between male and female pronouns for a little while, but soon found that doing so required a much more reliable short-term memory than the one I have, and I found using constructs like "he or she" almost as annoying as "(s)he". So I decided to use the feminine form for neuter third-person pronouns, my rationale being that almost all of the classical and even contemporary prose uses the masculine form, so every time I use the feminine form, I am bringing the balance one notch closer to even. The rest of the authors and guests are of course free to use whatever standards they prefer.

1. 1. The horizontal bar, "|", commonly operates in regular expressions as an "or" term