My new comments policy

Thanks to Andrew Sullivan for the link. Andrew’s was one of the first blogs I read regularly, although that was a few years ago. My politics have since become less mainstream and his, I think, more. But for someone who (I assume) spends most of his time in DC, he is still remarkably independent-minded and often has interesting things to say.

I had assumed this URL was more or less restricted to a few marginal eccentrics, but if A-listers are going to link to it (and why shouldn’t they? Who am I, Jonathan Franzen?), I’m afraid it is going to need a comments policy.

My policy is that all comments must be interesting—to people who are neither me, nor the author of the comment. When you comment, please try to keep in mind that your goal is to inform or entertain others who may be reading the comments section. I will decide what is informative or entertaining. The penalty is deletion and there is no appeal.

Please feel free to be as offensive as you want, though, whether to me or to others. One of the great things about the Internet is that it routes packets, not sticks or stones.

(Update: I’ve been blogging for four days and I already hate deleting comments. It makes me feel like Hitler. I may have my own crazed ideology, but I am seriously not cut out for world domination. If it’s obvious to me that you believe your comment is informative or entertaining, I am very unlikely to delete it. However, I’ll respond only to comments that I myself find informative or entertaining. I also discourage drive-by commenting—please comment only if you’re interested in discussion.)