Commenting guidelines

Hello lovelies,

As your comment moderatrix I have accumulated a few comments that contravene the vibe I try to promote at Stumptuous. Thus, I’d like to present you with some handy guidelines that will organize the way we do things here.

  1. Snark will not be permitted. I don’t care about your freedom of speech here, just as you are not free to pee on the rug in my house. If you are snippy, peevish, malcontent, or any other Victorian-sounding word for directed out-of-sortsness, your comment will not be approved.
  2. Comments that are explicitly sexist, homophobic, racist, or any other obvious “ist” will also not be tolerated. Comments that are by implication problematic are open to my interpretation on an ad hoc basis, with the understanding that they will be evaluated by me as a privileged white woman with a PhD in a social justice field — so my moral high ground kinda cancels out (consider me approximately neutral).
  3. Humour is welcome in both writers and readers. Please interpret comments in the spirit of generosity; conversely please also appreciate that what may be hilarity to you may not be to others. But in general I’m going with the laffs as much as possible while maintaining some degree of courtesy. So everyone, please, lighten the fuck up and get over yourselves.
  4. This is not grad school. Nobody is impressed by you being pretentious. See #3.
  5. However, we do welcome informed, evidence-based arguments if you disagree, e.g. critiques of sample sizes on studies, re-interpretations of relevant literature, pointing out logical fallacies, etc. Think of this as a project of mutual knowledge production rather than intellectual combat.
  6. Don’t post a comment that you would not say to someone’s face, and if your response might fall into the domain of point #1, consider your comments carefully before you post. There are enough internet fora full of people with itchy keyboard fingers. We don’t need that here.
  7. If you cannot play nicely I shall take your toys away. Nobody wants that.

Consider yourself duly finger-wagged, with my sternest eyebrow wrinkling!