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announcements comments policy

New Comment Policy

Cutest mod ever!
Cutest mod ever!

As promised, here is the new and I think improved comments policy.

It’s a bit long, but that’s in part because I’ve included sections that are designed to hopefully eliminate some of the contentious and often repetitive debates that have erupted in the past over the issue of ableism — in particular the use of words like “crazy” and “psycho” and the like. In the future, I am hoping that we can simply link new commenters to the policy (in particular, the “notes on ‘crazy'”) section and avoid a lot of the drama.

Categories
antifeminism antifeminist women citation needed comments policy confused cats against feminism mansplaining misogyny MRA straw feminists straw futrelle

What is We Hunted the Mammoth? A blogger who hates me offers answers.

This mammoth fights back!
This mammoth fights back!

Lucy Walcott, who publishes a blog called NotParticularlyPauciloquent, isn’t afraid of the big questions. The tough questions. The important questions.

And in a recent post she takes on what is perhaps the most important question of our age: What is We Hunted the Mammoth?

To paraphrase the great Marge Gunderson, I’m not so sure I agree 100% with her police work.

Categories
announcements comments policy douchebaggery TROOOLLLL!!

Fingers and trolls

Are they or aren't they?

A couple quick things:

Due to recent increases in trollerly, I’m being a bit more cautious about whom I let comment freely here, and while I will let new commenters post, I will be keeping them on moderation until I’m convinced they’re sincere, and not creepy abusive assholes, etc. In general I will be a bit quicker on the moderate/ban button.

EDITED TO ADD: If you’re a new commenter and want to be taken off moderation more quickly, email me with some info about yourself so I know who you are. (This info will be kept confidential.)

If someone is acting egregiously in the comments, please email me about it.

And generally, keep safe. Be careful with personal info. There are angry assholes everywhere.

On a happier note: Remember that thing about Sandra Fluke and her (allegedly) lesbian fingers? PZ Myers has torn apart the dubious science behind relative-finger-length-gaydar.

Categories
comments policy self-promotion

It’s ALIVE! The Man Boobz Forum, that is.

BREAKING NEWS: Because of the gender issue and other issues people have raised with proboards, I will be moving the forum to another platform, probably phpBB. Just give me a few hours! I’ve locked the proboards forum down in the meantime. Post below with any thoughts and/or advice. 

You asked for it – well, a majority of those who took the poll did. You got it! The Man Boobz Forum is open for business. Right here, right now.

I hope the discussions here on the blog will remain long and spirited and sprawly, but now you guys have a place to go to discuss, well, whatever you want to discuss, actually (within the limits of the forum’s comments policy, which you should all read). Raise you own issues, link to Man Booby stuff, link to off-topic stuff, link to your own blog, talk about books, talk about Magyck the Gendering cards, plan get-togethers, you name it.  One bit of warning: I’m going to try to keep discussions on the forum a little more civilized than they tend to be here on the blog; this means I will be more stringent about the commenting rules and much quicker to ban offenders, temporarily or permanently.

I encourage everyone who regularly comments here (and who wants to post on the forum) to register there using the same nickname you use here. Also, please post a comment here after I approve  you (just to verify that it’s really you behind both accounts). If you’re a regular commenter here and you’re interested in being a moderator of the forum, let me know.

Note on gender: Not everyone here identifies themselves as male or female. Unfortunately, proboards requires you to check either “male” or “female” when registering. The good news, for those who don’t fit the gender binary or who simply don’t want people to know what gender they are, is that you don’t have to display your gender in your profile or posts. (Go to your profile, and click “modify profile” and you’ll find a way to “hide” your gender as well as other ways to customize your profile.)

Post any feedback you have about the forum here or on the forum itself.

And enjoy!

Categories
comments policy douchebaggery

Ban Hammer Time

NOTE: I will be dealing with comments a bit differently here on WordPress; see the comments policy link at the top of the page.

Due in part to the recent massive derailing of, and general unpleasantness within, a certain discussion thread here, I will be enforcing my comments policy more stringently, especially when it comes to personal attacks, and off-topic posts that I find tiresome and/or disruptive.

Also, I’m introducing short-term bans for people who are breaking the rules but don’t deserve forever bans. Blogger doesn’t let me literally ban people; I just delete their comments. If I’ve “banned” someone and they keep posting, just ignore them. I will delete their comments when I see them.

I’ve updated  my comments policy page to reflect this. If you’re new here, read it.

Categories
comments policy violence against men/women

>Comments policy: Cool it

>Folks, some of you need to cool it with the gratuitously nasty personal attacks in your comments. I’ve been cutting some people slack because they are new to the comments here, and because I like to practice relatively hands-off moderation, but I will start deleting comments if this continues, and repeated violators will be banned entirely. Regardless of which side of the debate you’re on. If you haven’t already, read the comments policy.

Also not ok: Justifying violence against men or women. For example, this recent comment from witman suggesting it might be “patriotic” to shoot feminist elected officials. (I’ve screencapped it because I will be deleting it, but for now you can go see it for yourself to confirm I’m not making it up.)

Categories
comments policy

>Hey, where’s my comment?! Hint: Spam filter

>

If you post a comment and don’t see it up on the site immediately, that means it’s been caught by Blogger’s overactive spam filter, which unfortunately I can’t shut off. Unless your comment is incredibly foul or otherwise violates my fairly liberal comments policy, I will un-filter it as soon as I see it. Sometimes this will happen quickly, sometimes slowly. I’m not always online.

If your comment is posted and then later vanishes, that means I deliberately deleted it. But unless you’ve posted something truly awful, or spammy, or you’re among the tiny number of those I’ve banned (which can be counted on one hand), this isn’t going to happen to you.

Categories
comments policy

>Comments policy updated

>

Please, no monologuing.

I have added a few new comment guidelines, and clarified one of the old ones. Please read. I think these will help to curtail some of the derailing that goes on in the comments here, and will help those who want to have actual substantive discussions.

As anyone who comments here knows, I like to be as hands-off as possible with comment moderation, and I don’t censor people for disagreeing with me. But I will be more aggressive in the future in dealing with those who seem more interested in disrupting or monologuing than discussing, and those who repeatedly misrepresent what others say.

Categories
comments policy

>Comments policy

>

I want there to be lively debate in my comments section. I’m not going to ban anyone for disagreeing with me. But I have to enforce the following rules to fend off the forces of chaos and douchebaggery:

Registration is required in order to post comments.

My comment policy in short: I’m mostly hands-off, but if you’re persistently offensive, disruptive, or tedious, I’ll delete comments; if you continue, you’ll get a short-term ban or, in rare cases, be banned permanently. Big no nos: nasty personal attacks and/or slurs. I usually warn people first; if you persist after a warning, expect at least a short-term ban.

The details:

Don’t say things so vile and hateful that if you said them to Gandhi, he’d punch you in the head. Calling someone an idiot is fine. Lots of people are idiots. Just use caution when moving much beyond this level of invective. Back-and-forth namecalling is tedious for everything.

A few specific things that will get your comment (and perhaps you) banned as soon as I see it: the words “cunt” or “faggot,” used to disparage people or groups, references to sex organs, hateful slurs, gratuitously nasty personal attacks, flagrant lies about me or anyone else, threats.

If you regularly post comments that violate these basic guidelines, you’re done here
. I’ll delete every comment you make, even those that don’t violate the guidelines.

REALLY IMPORTANT CAVEAT: If your comment simply doesn’t post, it’s not because I deleted it. It’s because Blogger’s spam filter has filtered it.
The spam filter is unreliable, but unfortunately I can’t turn it off. If your comment follows the guidelines, and wasn’t filtered because, say, it was full of profanity and slurs, I will un-filter it as soon as I see it. That may take awhile, as I am not always in front of my computer.

EDIT: ADDITIONAL RULES:

Stay on topic, more or less: We all go off-topic from time to time. If you’re constantly going off topic in a way that’s tedious or disruptive, I’ll delete your comments.

No more than two posts in a row, unless you are responding specifically to arguments from other commenters and want to break it up into different comments. If you have an afterthought, or a correction, and want to post a second comment, that’s perfectly fine. If your comment is so long it needs a second part, that’s ok, but seriously think about being more concise. Posting every thought that pops into your head in comment after comment? No. Blog comments are supposed to be about dialogue, not monologue.

Don’t quote entire articles. If you want to post about something you found elsewhere, post a brief excerpt and/or summary and a link. Don’t post the whole thing.


Don’t misrepresent what other commenters say or put words in their mouth. This is already covered in the “don’t lie” bit above, but I want to reiterate it. If you misunderstand something someone else says, or have a different interpretation (and a good argument to back that up), that’s fine. But repeatedly misrepresenting others, particularly after they have corrected you, will get your comments deleted.

Categories
comments policy

>Registraton is now required to post comments here

>

We’re having a lovely discussion.

In order to cut down on some of the, er, noise in the comment section, from now on only registered users will be allowed to comment here.

It’s a bit of a hassle, but I’d rather do this than to enable comment moderation, which is even more of a hassle for me and for everyone else. I hope that all of you regular posters who are actually trying to have real discussion will stick around. It really doesn’t take much time to register.

Oh, and the rest of my comment policy still stands: Don’t say things so vile and hateful that if you said them to Gandhi, he’d punch you in the head. No gratuitously nasty personal attacks. No really hateful slurs. (More specifics here.) Otherwise, go at it.

EDIT: If you try to post a comment and it simply doesn’t show up, that’s not my doing; it’s Blogger’s spam filter at work. I would turn it off if I could. I will un-filter comments as soon as I see them in the spam folder, so long as they aren’t vile/hateful, as spelled out above.