Commenting Policy

Since individuals find it appealing to test their freedom boundaries, I find it essential to make things clear for the curious and the troublesome alike. Freedom is unachievable unless we understand its limitations, and respect the freedom of others; asserting that, allow me to inform you of some simple codes to follow should you desire to comment on entries in this site. I, at all times, reserve the full right, inclusive of and not limited to, deleting comments posted to my blog in conflict with the rules stated as follows.

Relevance to topic:
Comments that are dramatically off-topic will be removed as they could confuse readers. Comments that do not contribute to the discussion of the entries, or to the debates introduced by comments relevant to topic will be removed. If you think your comment doesn't stick to this policy, consider posting it under the notes and complaints section.

Language Policy 1:
Generally speaking offensive words are allowed. All words in the dictionary (or outside the dictionary, if you wish ;) ) are allowed including but not limited to the word 'fuck'. Under no circumstances this entry permits breaking the NO Personal attacks policy. You are permitted the free choice of words to convey your ideas, use that wisely.

Language Policy 2:
Only English please. L33t language is tolerated but not encouraged. Only English fonts are tolerated. Spoken language must be comprehensible English language.
Few exceptions apply: You may write in French and Arabic, on the condition that you provide at least an idea of what the comment is about in English language. For those who choose to use the Arabic language, please avoid using Arabic font, use an alphabet version (eg. keef el-7al?). Any parts written in a language other than English must be clearly identified.

NO Censorship:
Censorship is discouraged. All information provided in the comments must be clear, EXPLICIT, and unambiguous. Censored materials are not allowed. Please understand that this policy is not contradicting with Language Policy 1, but actually protecting it. Thus 'f***' is NOT a word, 'f***' can be any four lettered word starting with the letter f, given that the English language has 26 letters this word can be any of 26*26*26=17576 possibilities... if it was meant to be the word 'fuck' use it in the EXPLICIT form, and if it was meant to be something else, use that unambiguous form. This policy doesn't only apply to words, but also ideas must be clearly identifiable by any intelligent person without need for pre-knowledge of spoofing techniques. Since anonymity is an issues sometimes, censorship of certain material MIGHT ONLY be overlooked IF it exposes personally identifiable information such as names, emails, and faces in the case of images\videos.

Proper use of commenting space:
Some entries may have the commenting option enabled and others may not. Do not comment on a post using another's commenting space. This is considered as misuse of commenting space, any such comments will be removed.

NO Personal attacks:
Personal attacks against me, my family, friends, or other commentators are not acceptable. Comments of such genres will be removed and the individuals behind them banned. Along the same line is the disclosure of personal information about any individual against their consent including but not limited to me.

NO Hate:
Taking the NO Personal attacks policy one step ahead, racism, sexism, and public threats will not be tolerated. Objective, and non-hate motivated statements MIGHT be overlooked. I am sorry to say that this policy in particular will be moderated to my personal judgment as there is no big rule to say on what basis hating people is justified and on which that hate is not justified.

NO Spam, NO Ads:
I have zero-tolerance to bots and\or senseless ads. Only ads relevant to topic MIGHT be overlooked.

Pornographic\Offensive material:
In case any pornographic\offensive materials have been relevant to topic and conforms to all other policies, then only one rule applies: they must be clearly labeled as offensive, and NOT directly viewable without the reader's pre-consent. This is regulation is not contradicting with the NO censorship policy since the reader can view all materials published upon consent! So its purpose is to give the reader the choice over materials they view without compromising the explicitness of those materials...


Trackbacks:
Trackbacks are considered comments and they follow the same rules.

Comments Moderation Strategy:
- Not removing comments adhering to commenting policies (but I reserve the right to), to maintain integrity, and completeness of discussion. A notable exception is the "Notes And Complaints" section.
- I might overlook some violations whenever I see fit, if it contributes positively to the discussion.
- If you feel that some post violates commenting policies and should be removed, please submit a complaint.
- I have no responsibility what-so-ever on comments posted, and although I would read almost all comments posted, such assumptions may not be valid

PS: Parts of this page are copied, and modified from http://tololy.blogspot.com/2005/10/commenting-policy.html after the e-consent of the author.

This entry was first published on November 13th, 2005.