Comment Policy on Sandwalk

 
I think it's time to re-state my policy on comments. I don't like censorship. That's why my policy is close to the one mockingly described at Draft Blogger's Code of Conduct.

We also decided we needed an "anything goes" badge for sites that want to warn possible commenters that they are entering a free-for-all zone. The text to accompany that badge might go something like this:

"This is an open, uncensored forum. We are not responsible for the comments of any poster, and when discussions get heated, crude language, insults and other "off color" comments may be encountered. Participate in this site at your own risk."

As a consequence of this policy, there are several very annoying people making comments on Sandwalk. I don't respond to comments from those people but others are free to do so.

There are two types of comments that will be removed from Sandwalk. These are cases where censorship is justified, in my opinion.

The first is outright spam of the sort that we all have to tolerate from time to time. If your comment serves no other purpose than to direct people to 30 different "free" travel websites, for example, then these comments will be quickly removed.

The second is blatant promotion of commercial products on the pretext that they are relevant to the content of a posting. An example of the second type is the posting of a website for collagen creme in the comments section of an article about the biochemistry of collagen.

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