Canis lupus hominis

I hate to be a comment Nazi, but in recent months, it’s become very hard to have a decent conversation on this blog.

So I’m going to outline some rules for comments:

1. Comments must be pertinent to the post in question. If you have a new idea for me to look at, please use the contact form. If you have unfinished business from a previous post and still want to carry on the conversation, please comment on that post and not another one.

2.  Any comments that consist of nothing but moral platitudes will be deleted. Any comments that include a sermon about ethics without logic or reason behind it will be deleted.  Should I leave one of these comments up, and someone tears it apart using logic and reason, you have already lost the argument. Please don’t come back to comments that refute one’s previous moralizing comment with more moralizing. You’ve already decided you don’t want to have a conversation based upon facts, and to keep coming back with the same moralizing rhetoric does nothing but piss every one else off. No one wants to listen to you spout moral platitudes, or have you impugn everyone else who tries to explain the logic and reason for taking a particular stance. It’s a very bad debate tactic, and it is quite counter productive. If a commentator persists in engaging in this sort of debate, I will warn you about possible banning. You get two warnings. On the third, you are banned.

3. Animal rights views will be tolerated, but if the commentator wishes to engage in the sort of debate that is described in number 2 with an animal rights issue, the comments will be deleted. If one persists in the exact same behavior with animal rights issues, one will be banned after being warned twice. I do not support animal rights, nor do most people who read this blog. We do not appreciate being lectured about what horrible monsters we are just because we don’t buy into the various animal rights canards.

4. I reserve the right to delete any comment for any reason. However, I will delete and will not approve any comments that attack another person’s ethnicity, national origin, race, gender, or sexual orientation.

5. All creationists are considered either liars or horribly misinformed. If you wish to leave creationist comments on this blog, you will be ridiculed. I have no time to indulge your dishonesty or ignorance.

6. If you are here to troll and/or waste my time, I will ban your ass. I don’t have to put up with your crap. If you want to complain about me, start your own blog. If you have your own blog and want to complain about me, I am not going let your site get traffic from the link you provide in the comments. I will remove your link, and I may make some edits to the comment form to make you look like the ass that you really are. If you are banned right now, the chances are high that you engaged in this sort of behavior, and I responded by banning you.

7. I may ban you because I deem your intelligence and/or reading comprehension so limited that you probably shouldn’t be commenting on a grown-up’s blog.

8. Quote-mining me on my own blog is an offense that will result in instant banning.

9. If you say something that is obviously false– as in science disproved it a long time ago–and you insist on using it as a way to tear me down, you are wasting your time.

10. If I think your comment will lead nowhere, I will delete it. I don’t have time to deal with comments that lead to circular discussions and continuously moving goalposts.

I reserve the right not to publish comments, even my reasoning for not doing so is that I simply don’t like your tone.