A comment on the commenting policy

Meta-blogging isn't something I find particularly interesting to read, so I'll keep this brief, but in light of some recent comments I think it's prudent to clarify the commenting policy.

I'm a fan of discourse, and I have somewhat quixotic notions about how much freedom should be afforded to people when having a discussion, so here's a rundown of the rules:

• I don't like imposing any barriers to commenting, so no registration is necessary, and anonymous comments are allowed
• I don't pre-approve comments
• The only comments that get deleted are spammy ones
• I hate CAPTCHAs (they're a barrier to commenting), but a deluge of spammy comments means they'll probably stick around a while
• If you want to take advantage of the anonymous comments, please use a pseudonym
• Do try to be civil with your fellow commenters. Even the stupidest ones.

Accusing me of deleting comments that are critical of me or others is asinine. My whole schtick is that I'm a rationalist - I enjoy being proved wrong, or having something I overlooked pointed out to me, so don't hold back if you're worried that your insight will never see the light of day.

To 'protest' my buddy Fin's draconian comment-approval process, I invited a slew of brutal ad-hominem attacks. The resulting creativity from my readers is probably my favorite page on this humble slice of webspace.

Many of the comments I've received on the Jobseeker Beware entry (the most popular page on this site by a few orders of magnitude) make me feel as though my blog has done some good for people. Some of the comments are from apologists for the sinister companies I'm warning my readers about, and while I disagree with them vehemently, I won't delete their attempts to muddy the waters, purely because I prefer to make the part of world I have control over an open forum for discussion where people can make up their own mind.

This has been the policy from day one, but it's never been explicitly outlined, mostly because I don't get enough comments to justify it. However, in light of some recent, vaguely threatening comments that don't quite fit neatly into my existing policy, I'm going to start deleting these non-sequitur comments that attempt to disrupt discussion through harassment. I'll keep a copy of whatever I remove for those interested.