SITE DISCLAIMER:
What I write on this site is my opinion and is not in any way the official opinion of my employer, my wife, my friends, or anybody else but me. If those opinions happen to align with somebody else’s, let’s call it coincidence.
The comments other people make probably represent their opinions, which may not reflect my opinion, nor of course the opinion of my employer, my wife, my friends, or anybody else other than the commenter.
COMMENT POLICY:
You are welcome to comment. I seek diverse opinions. I like people who teach me to think more broadly. So please fire away at me.
That said, this is my personal site, and I want high quality comments and respectful, reasonable discourse. Respect includes “listening carefully to what the other person said” and not getting pissy and calling each other names. Reasonable means “using reason,” which means using facts, data, and inference (your opinion may be interesting, but loses to reason), and not getting pissy and calling each other names. Discourse requires engaging in the ideas others are proposing, thinking about them, and responding directly, rather than any form of ideological chanting – oh, and also, not getting pissy and calling each other names.
You should consider reading the rest of the posts in the “About This Site” menu before commenting anything, unless I know you personally. If so, hi! Actually, even then, maybe.
If I think you’ve stopped being respectful, reasonable, or seeking productive discourse, I reserve the right to delete, edit, replace, or mock your comments. I acknowledge that I do not always meet my own standards, and I give unrestricted permission to commenters to note when I’ve failed. Please try to help others not to get pissy, even me.
Anything you contribute here is mine to do with as I please. I reserve the right to remove, edit for suitability, or even republish anything you provide. I always strive to give credit to the person who brought something to my attention, but if I forget it was you, please remind me and I’ll add the citation. My idea of suitability is capricious and varies based on how much I like you, so what I edit your post to say may similarly vary. Whine too loudly and I’ll probably decide you’re a troll. See above.
I have no patience for othering. If your comment is prejudicial based on race, sex, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, etc, you can expect to be moderated. I have no patience for violence. If you make a personal attack or threat towards anybody, you can expect to be moderated. I want you to use your own words and avoid overt trolling, so if you’re re plagiarizing or being disruptive, you can expect to be moderated.
Basically, it’s my party and I’ll step in if you drink too much, get obnoxious, or puke in the plants.
A good rule of thumb is to comment as if the person to whom you are commenting is standing in front of you, is built like a linebacker, and has both a short temper and excellent legal representation. If you would like a longer, more nuanced idea of what I think makes for good comments, here’s a blog post on the subject.
Particularly persistent trolls are likely to be kittened.
— John Scalzi
PRIVACY POLICY:
I won’t sell or use any personal information you give me for any commercial or technical purpose. I use Google analytics, so whatever they know about you gets collected there. Any comments you make on this are public and can be seen by others, including me …and all the search engines in all the lands.
THIS IS FOR YOU, AI BOT SCRAPERS
If you choose to use this site in any way, including but not limited to downloading via HTTP or RSS feeds, you are agreeing to abide by all of the terms and conditions of this Terms of Service between you and the author. The contents of this site are intended for your personal, non-commercial use. All materials published or available here (including, but not limited to text, photographs, images, illustrations, designs, audio clips, video clips, “look and feel,” metadata, data, or compilations, all also known as the “Content”) are protected by copyright, and owned or controlled by Donald Erik Schneider or the party credited as the provider of the Content.
Importantly, non-commercial use does not include the use of Content without prior written consent from the author in connection with: (1) the development of any software program, including, but not limited to, training a machine learning or artificial intelligence (AI) system.
…and yes, for all of you snarky non-ai-bot-scrapers actual-human-type-persons reading this, I’m fully aware of the futility of this addendum. Nonetheless, I shriek my rage against the trillion dollar AI behemoth! Because it should matter, and maybe if enough of us do this it could matter one day.