Comment Rules

I have certain rules if you want to comment on this blog. Below you will see the rules and afterward I’ll explain why these rules are in place. If one or more of these rules are not abided by, I may not approve your comment. Please do not take this personally. You can always email me directly via the contact form instead.

RULE #1: Comments in this section should be brief, coherent, and to the point, preferably 1 or 2 sentences long. I’ve restricted the character limit to 500 per comment. Multiple comments in a row will likely not be approved.

REASON: I’d like for this comment section to be conversational and not intimidating for people to read or respond to. Essay sized posts, though perhaps interesting, should go elsewhere. One thought at a time in small chunks allows us to not talk past each other. 500 characters may not seem like much, but it is the right amount for a back and forth conversation. This comment section is for very brief commentary and/or back and forth discussions (not unproductive essay wars).

RULE #2: Comments should be sufficiently on-topic to the original post.

REASON: Comments that are not on topic take readers away on diverging topics that tend to not come back to the original post. Let’s stay on target.

RULE #3: Avoid misinformation.

REASON: I simply do not have time to correct a large load of misinformation, and I refuse to have misinformation on my site without it being criticized. If I notice misinformation and I do not have time to address the misinformation, your comment will not be published. I do not want people to be confused by misinformation they see in my comment section.

RULE #4: Avoid fallacies.

REASON: I do not have the time to correct for too many fallacies. For example, if you strawman what has been said to mean something that was not said, your comment may not be approved unless I have time to respond to the fallacy.

RULE #5: Be courteous.

REASON: Rude or insulting behavior is unproductive. If there is a disagreement, that can be said in a non-insulting way. Insults and hostility will not be approved.

RULE #6: This is not your platform.

REASON: This blog is not to be used for your own personal soapbox. You should find your own corner of the web for that. This blog is to give people new information and things to think about regarding the free will topic – and the comment section is used for back and forth discussions or brief commentary only. . If you want to talk with me directly, you can use the contact form on the website.

RULE #7: I reserve the right to break the the comment length rule when I see fit.

REASON: For the most part my responses will be on par with the comment length rules. Every now and again, however, I will see that someone else has broken the rules, for example, posting multiple comments, and I would (for whatever reason) still like to approve them….however, to address the full array of comments I need to break the rules myself. I also reserve the right to break my own rules if I decide to allow in complete misinformation (another break of the rules) that needs to be debunked and I need to copy/paste from a journal, etc. to show the person is being deceptive or blatantly lying.  And last, I reserve the right to break my own comment length rules in order to explain to people the rules.

Rules may evolve and change as further problems arise.

Suggestions

You are talking to another person or people when you post here. Introduce yourself if we don’t already know each other. The internet makes it easy to just blurt out things as if there is no real human interaction. Act as you would if we were face-to-face. Some of the problems with text-chat is that it often can come across far more negatively than if you were having an actual verbal chat with another.

Also, if you want to just say something to me you can use the contact form on this site as well. I’m very friendly. And if you truly want to get into the details and haggle over a point or two, I often do a conversational podcast with other free will skeptics and we like having people who disagree with us so we can calmly talk over our disagreements via skype. Just send me a message if you are interested in coming on as a guest. This will prevent us from talking past each other via text.