We love comments, but…

…we don’t much like dealing with mostly-anonymous drive-by shooters who choose to act out in our comments section. We could just delete ’em as we see ’em—but we’d rather not—we like free speech as much as the next guy, and we really don’t want to be the Comment Police.

Instead—since we *do* love spirited, irreverent conversation as much as the next duke ‘em out debater—we’ve come up with the following comments policy (although we reserve the right to delete if we absolutely must.)

First, Take Responsibility

All comments within this blog are the responsibility of the commenter, not OurPDX Networks. We’d prefer it if you used a real name or consistent handle (we like to know who we’re talking with), and we do ask you to fill in an email address. In return, we’ll never reveal, display, publicize or otherwise share your email address with anyone else - although we may contact you from time to time directly about your specific comment.

All email, snail mail, phone numbers or any other private information posted in any comment will be deleted as soon as possible to protect the privacy of our commenters.

By submitting a comment on our blog, you agree that the comment content is your own, and to hold OurPDX Networks, and all subsidiaries (hey, we can dream—can’t we?) and representatives harmless from any and all repercussions, damages, or liability.

Second, Be Respectful

The best rule of thumb here is “Would you say it to my face?” “Would you say it in my living room?” If not - don’t say it at all. Comments that don’t add to the conversation or take it in an unpleasant direction may be removed or deleted. Personal attacks aren’t permitted - question or argue about the content all you’d like, but don’t attack the authors or other commenters. Finally, if you post a comment that is obviously an attempt to get people upset (also known as “flaming” or “trolling”), or post comments under multiple names, you should expect a warning and/or deletion.

OurPDX Networks does reserve the right to delete, move, or mark as spam any and all comments. Frequent comment violators may be blocked from future access and/or commenting on this blog. (Yes, this is waaay more draconian than we want to be. Please don’t make us do this!)

(Developed on 8/27/08 after feedback from readers; developed with guidance from Lorelle VanFossen’s post Does your blog have a comments policy?, help from a punctuation expert, and advice from other comment policy creators.)