I do not tolerate trolls very well. If you come to my blog and post a comment that does not engage with my post, or with the comment thread in general, I will consider you a troll. I will probably let your first comment through (unless it’s offensive), if only to tell you I consider you a troll. After that, I may delete your comments or disemvowel them, depending on my mood. (Whether I delete or disemvowel, you can be sure that I am laughing at you.) I will probably then add you to the blocked commenters list so that I never have to deal with you again.
I also don’t take well to condescension. If you write a condescending comment – especially if you start with a condescending phrase – or if you mansplain (or equivalent) at me, I will probably treat you as a troll. Just so you know.
Language which is offensive because it is ableist, sexist, misogynistic, racist, homophobic or anything else of that calibre is not acceptable. If you use that sort of language and your comment is otherwise fine (whether or not you agree with me), I’ll ask you to stop using the language. If you use offensive language and your comment is generally offensive, I will delete your comments or disemvowel them, and add you to the blocked commenters list so that I never have to deal with you again. (To make it clear: swearing is fine. I’ve got no problem with swearing. I’m talking about insulting language, particularly language which uses terms as pejoratives that refer to attributes of people from particular groups – such as “lame”.)
Finally, if your comment appears to do nothing other than advertise your website, or your book, or whatever, it may well be deleted without warning, since that’s pretty much the definition of spam.
Everyone else is more than welcome to comment.
If you think this policy is unfair, you are more than welcome to go and comment on some other blog.
