It’s been a long time coming, but some recent comments on various Lost Laowai posts have inspired us (and we’re sure we’re the only ones they inspired – as they were lame) to create a comment policy for the blog.
As an advocate of free speech in its sundry forms, and our penchants for a good debate and the Darwinianism of ideas, we must first say we do not like deleting comments. We like having a wide selection of comments that all can pick, choose and push to new levels their opinions from.
Also, in the few years that the Lost Laowai blog has been running, we’ve had some amazing commentary from some amazing and thought provoking people. Thank you, and know that your comments will always be welcome here.
That said, we’ve got a few rules:
1. We make the rules. Though a “policy”, this site is still managed by us, and at the end of the day we have the power to remove or keep what we choose.
2. No haters. It’s fine if you disagree. It’s fine if you strongly disagree – but if the conversation devolves into senseless name calling or threats of any kind the swift fiery justice of delete shall rain down upon you.
3. No spam. In our comments section we quite liberally support the use of linking offsite – if this is abused and links are included that are of a mystery meatish nature they’ll be returned to where they belong – a can. We realize that “spam” can be a bit subjective in nature – so use this little test: If you’re sitting there wondering, “Hey, is my comment spam?”, it probably is.
4. No flooding. Get as much in your comment as possible. If you forget something, post it in a new comment – no problemo. Do not, however, put each new paragraph in a new comment. Do not post as many comments as you can just for the sake of it. If you flood the system with comments, they’ll be removed.
5. Anonymousness. If ever a comment is reported as being offensive or breaking from this policy, the first place we look is at the e-mail field filled in upon comment submission. If the e-mail is an obvious fake the comment is immediately deleted. This e-mail address is completely internal and private, and it will never be used for spamming or sold to third parties. So, this one’s a bit of a two-way street. You trust we won’t abuse your e-mail and we trust your comment is worth going to the mat for.
6. No libel. Ultimately the responsibility of a comment to be truthful rests on the person leaving the comment. We have no legal responsibility (or funds) to defend accusations of libel and will work with authorities to supply them with the appropriate logs or information should an official accusation of libel be brought forward. This is not a police state, this is common sense – don’t lie about shit. If you’re a liar, you deserve what you get. It is your responsibility to assure the accuracy and truth of your comments. Likewise, there is also a burden of proof on the libeled to be precise in naming what is libel. General or blanket accusations of libel will be ignored.
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Ok, that about does it.
We, of course, reserve the right to add, remove or modify this policy at any time. Thanks for taking the time to make yourself aware of these and should you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us.
