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October 20, 2008
Bar Rules

It seems to be time to make this clear. While anyone is invited to comment at this blog, no one has a ‘right’ to be welcome here. So without further ado here are some rules that apply:

Comments that may get unpublished/deleted:

  • Off-topic comments that interrupts threads. There is always a Open Thread for such stuff linked at the top-left of the homepage.

Comments that will certainly get deleted:

  • Commercial spam
  • Anything written majorly in CAPs

Stuff that will get a persons IP addresses blocked from commenting here:

  • Unprovoked personal attacks
  • Commenting under multiple names
  • Taking on the personality of another commenter

Some people come here through anonymizer services. If they misbehave, I have to block all comments coming through the anonymizer they use. That may effect legitimate commenters as their comments will have to be reviewed by me before they get published (or not). Sorry, can’t help it.

I periodically remove blocked IP addresses. So anyone who is blocked can come back after a while. Still, if the behavior has not changed, I will immediately block the person and/or IP addresses again and will delete their comments as appropriate.

The above is subject to change.

Posted by b on October 20, 2008 at 09:31 UTC | Permalink
Comments

Thanks b. You run a fine establishment.

Posted by: beq | Oct 20 2008 11:04 utc | 1

Poor b.
[As I wrote above
“Stuff that will get a persons IP addresses blocked from commenting here: Unprovoked personal attacks”
I consider “Poor b.” as such a personal attack and blocked Spyware’s IP addresses.
b.]

Posted by: Spyware | Oct 20 2008 13:27 utc | 2

Echoing beq about the general quality, but I have to say it’s about damned time rules were codified while expressing my regret that they have to be. Not sure why the illusion of anonymity suspends ostensibly mature adults’ senses of personal responsibility, but it does and that’s a fact. Billmon shut down comments altogether over considerably fewer juvenile antics than have become routine in recent months here.
It was my unwillingness on a personal level to forgive violations of Paragraph III, and specifically subsection C (viz. “Taking on the personality of another commenter”) that has eliminated my voice here for the most part. I have never understood why so many people here found that to be a trivial offense, but I regard it as the second most severe breach of trust this format allows.
While I have been largely lurking, I have been reading the site nearly daily. I had wondered when the Keeper of the Great ISP Addresses was going to twig onto the multiple violations of Paragraph III, subsection b (in its entirety: “Commenting under multiple names”). I’ve been watching that going on for awhile now, but if I spoke up and called attention to it, it would have been dismissed as a paranoid fantasy on my part, so I’ve bitten my tongue.
Anyway, when the bullies and trolls aren’t completely chewing up the landscape here, it’s still a pretty good read. Not what it once was, but still better than most. Carry on, all.

Posted by: Monolycus | Oct 20 2008 13:58 utc | 3

This all seems totally reasonable, and mostly common sense. It must be a real chore trying to keep such a quality establishment up, given the nature of some of the people I see elsewhere on the web.

Posted by: JimT. | Oct 20 2008 14:58 utc | 4

It’s about time we had some rules around here.

Posted by: slothrop | Oct 20 2008 15:24 utc | 5

This site is excellent, and we should all appreciate & respect its creator.

Posted by: Wolfgang | Oct 20 2008 15:28 utc | 6

The guidelines are reasonable. Let’s carry on. Opinions need airing. lector caveat.

Posted by: whimsy mugwump | Oct 20 2008 15:47 utc | 7

I don´t think “b” is the author of the “bar rules.”
Slothrop surely can be.

Posted by: timidcurious | Oct 20 2008 16:17 utc | 8

I don´t think “b” is the author of the “bar rules.”
Slothrop surely can be.

Posted by: timidcurious | Oct 20 2008 16:17 utc | 9

Ok, b.
Signed,
lessthanone

Posted by: Anonymous | Oct 20 2008 16:19 utc | 10

De-lurking…
Your joint, your rules.
One thing did surprise me about your post…
“There is always a Open Thread for such stuff linked at the top-left of the homepage.”
Been poppin’ in here since you opened the joint and never saw that link. Smacks self in head. 🙂

Posted by: aemd | Oct 20 2008 17:06 utc | 11

What a shame it would be if b’s place became so over run with trolls, bullies, and OT-ers that he’d have to hire a bouncer or two to bounce them out of this fine establishment of his…:(

Posted by: Cynthia | Oct 20 2008 17:36 utc | 12

monolycu, you said
Anyway, when the bullies and trolls aren’t completely chewing up the landscape here, it’s still a pretty good read. Not what it once was, but still better than most. Carry on, all.
i wish you & malooga were able to contribute more often, & others alos but perhaps i am dumb to it all but i find qualities here that i do not find it anywhere else – i do not see a golden age of moa – i see ith through the prism of different times & moments
there are significan part of political life that b has brought to me, specifically it has brought an understanding that would otherwise take a great deal more time to concentrate. b’s almost instantaneous reading of what was happening in southern ossetia georgia for example made readable what was difficult to refine. others too bring a specificity to their knowledge that it allows for a more ‘ethereal’ reading & that is far from perjorative for me – on the contrary it makes things clearer
i hiope i am not a bully but i know i can bark where it would be better to bite. there are people here who are part of a struggle writng about the struggle of others & of their own battles. the cultural domination of an idiocracy explains to me why we & i mean i in this instance – arrive fatigued by the stupidity & noise that intrudes from the elites that renders even breath impossible sometimes. to arrive at a sentence, a paragraph, a whole post that teaches something is a gift, a treasure for me. & there are many posters b chief amongst them who do that & often. the breadth of debs’s knowledge teaches me, the clarity of alamet & antifa, the energy of annie, uncle & many many others give vital food for this troubled soul in & troubled times
i too am irritated by the one liners, the personal attacks which are no replacement for solid critique, but it is a community life & that seems to mean that we are meant to live with a certain amount of noise. b has kept that noise to a minimum & larely those who arrive simply to repeat or brandish a single opinion without listening to the context of other posters, the thread or of moa in general – they soon go
fraternally

Posted by: remembereringgiap | Oct 20 2008 17:56 utc | 13

good job b and the last sentence is a favorite of mine: The above is subject to change. 🙂
I did wonder about the anonymous (thru a service) e-mails, banning them. For some ppl it is very hard to post in the West at all and any disturbance or difficulty sends them into hiding.
Thanks for all your work.

Posted by: Tangerine | Oct 20 2008 18:03 utc | 14

This is a conundrum for which there can be no ‘correct’ solution. Many of us have been having this debate for quite few years now and know our points of difference and points of agreement. We enjoy having new people with different ideas coming in, but that happens pretty rarely, mostly new people coming in bring old arguments, ones that have been debated and dismissed many times before. Then the bar becomes tiresome. Especially if one may suspect that the ‘new’ person is just some old hack promoting some sort of straussian agenda spreading agreed deceptions, those that some elites have decided are in their best interest.
I tend to have the big “coming from opposite ends of the spectrum” debates elsewhere, usually on the big mainstream media sites for example, here at MoA the discussions tend to be about the best way to a goal between posters who are largely in agreement on the basic issues.
Maybe these types are coming in here because the mainstream media sites are getting increasingly harder to post to or maybe they are coming as part of that.
That is having restricted debate on large sites the straussians are now on the offensive bringing the fight into the opponents’ territory.
Of course all of this is supposition and I know how looney it sounds, but in the past 18 months or so I have experienced an internet a lot different from the free exchange of ideas it once was.
I would be interested to hear from any others who find that their posts into the mainstream blogs are also left to ‘hang’ in cyberspace, never making it onto the board.
It is more than the simple IP address banning b proposes as a defensive measure here.

Posted by: Debs is dead | Oct 20 2008 19:31 utc | 15

thanks b, for all you do for us.

Posted by: annie | Oct 20 2008 19:58 utc | 16

mostly lurking, but, this spot is my first stop every day. thanks!

Posted by: Ben | Oct 20 2008 20:20 utc | 17

r’giap (#13): “i hiope i am not a bully but i know i can bark where it would be better to bite.”
Never noticed you engaging in any bullying. You do tend to continue to engage people long after I would classify them as disingenuous (if not outright hopeless), but you are more optimistic than I am. If you have the energy to yell at a cinder block, it’s not my place to tell you to stop. There’s a Korean expression that sums up how I’ve come to feel about the majority of it. It’s often translated as “Talking to the world”, but literally comes closer to “Speaking into a cow’s ear”.
Did (#15): “It is more than the simple IP address banning b proposes as a defensive measure here.”
The simple solution would be to require registration to the site. That would eliminate the screen name spoofing, and severely limit the problem of multiple handles and sock puppets. Trolls as well as regular posters would be easier to identify and would thus be more inclined to restrain themselves from committing wanton attacks (or at least be easier to ban when they did).
It would also discourage new traffic, foster an “Ihre Papieren, Bitte!” environment and virtually ensure that if one member of us ended up on an NSA list, we all would all end up on that list as it would constitute a “membership roll” of sorts.
Of course, theoretically, we all come with a superego which is supposed to keep us acting like adults to each other at all times. You see how well that’s worked.

Posted by: Monolycus | Oct 21 2008 3:51 utc | 18

I agree that maintaining a minimal level of decorum is essential. b‘s Gundsätze seem perfectly reasonable and have the additional virtue of being subject to amendment. Naturally, one can hope that the average quality of the contributions here will rise to even more laudable levels, but, of course, this is a bar and not a doctoral seminar so emotive vehemence can often be just as welcome as detached analysis. All in all, b‘s efforts are a wonder to behold, and merit heartfelt thanks. I, for one, like to see new contributors who issue reasoned challenges to our received “wisdom”.

Posted by: Hannah K. O’Luthon | Oct 21 2008 5:57 utc | 19

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