DLTJ Comment Policy

Welcome to DLTJ. I hope what you read here inspires you to add to the conversation. At a point in its past, this blog had a direct comment function. In the great 2018 migration from WordPress to Jekyll, direct comments were removed. (When the ratio of spam-making-it-through-the-filters to legitimate-comment became 10-to-1, it seemed to be time to do away with direct comments.) Feel free to continue the discussion on Twitter, via your own blog, or through an appropriate mailing list. I’m keeping the guidelines below as a record of the policy and in case I decide to add direct comments on this blog again.

Civility

Be respectful of others, and call me out if you see me being disrespectful. Personal attacks and hate speech will not be tolerated. I will not delete comments that disagree with me as long as they are done in good taste.

Identity

Signed comments are preferred; pseudonymous comments are allowed, but a real e-mail address is required. The e-mail address will not be publicly posted. Impersonation is forbidden.

Off-topic Comments and Spam

Comments must be directed to the original topic or to comments made by others. Off-topic comments will be gently redirected. The comments feature on DLTJ does not exist for you to promote yourself, your employer, your workplace, or your goods/services. Spam messages will be deleted on sight. I will determine whether a comment is off-topic or spam. Appeals may be made by e-mail.

Appropriate links are allowed in comments. All links in comments have a rel=”nofollow” attribute added to them, so don’t expect any “Google Juice” from links in comments. Trackback links are encouraged as a way to continue a conversation, but the destination of links will be monitored and deleted if they fall into the “spam” category.

Technology Aids

This blog is using the Akismet Spam Filter in an attempt to cut down on the amount of manual spam processing I need to do. If these are causing problems for you (for instance, you don’t see your comment immediately posted), please let me know so I can fish it out of the spam queue.

Editor’s Prerogative

I reserve the right to edit comments to bring them in line with the policy or to correct links. If a comment is edited, it will be noted at the end. If you disagree with my edits, provide alternate text or let me know if you want the comment deleted.

Assignment of Rights

You, and only you, are responsible for your words. They are yours; however, by posting your comments to DLTJ you are granting me a non-exclusive license, in perpetuity, to use, alter, and/or display them.

In Summary…

This is not an open forum. Open conversations, even feisty ones, are welcomed and encouraged, but in the end this is my blog; you’re a guest.

Source material: James Grimmelmann’s The Laboratorium, Walt Crawford’s Walt at Random, and the Book of Trogool by Elizabeth Brown, Dorothea Salo, and Sarah Shreeves.