Comments are an integral part of the weblog experience. They provide two-way communication and the chance to correct facts, annotate a post with more information, or provide insight. I've learned and incredible amount from people that have commented on this site.

In the interest of promoting healthy debate, I will make this pledge: I will not delete comments solely based on political, ideological, or technical differences in opinion. You are certainly free to disagree with me and other commenters here, and I'm happy for you to do so here. All I ask is that you do it in a fashion that is respectful and well argued.

From time to time, however, I've also experienced the dark side of comments. Anonymity on the Internet enables the a dark side in people's behavior, one of the results of which is abusive, hostile comments. There is also a huge problem with spam in blog comments. Due to these factors, I do delete certain kinds of comments. If you use hostile language, ad hominem attacks, excessive foul language, or post spam to this website, I will delete it.

Another category of problematic comments has surfaced of late on this blog which consist of long blocks of content copy-and-pasted from other sources and then linked back to those sources. In some cases, these blocks of content run in excess of 5000 words. I have no problem with posting a link along with a brief summary to allow readers to find previously published content, but reposting long essays here as a comment is not OK. If you post long comments consisting of material found elsewhere, I reserve the right to edit it for length, provide a pointer instead of the comment, or simply delete the comment.

I am the sole arbiter of what constitutes a violation of this policy on this website and reserve the right to update or change this policy at my discretion.

To aid in the process of comment management, the software that runs this site uses a variety of techniques to filter spam, including moderation. Because of this, your comments may not be immediately visible.