Every Couple of Months

I can’t believe that I have to do this post again. It seems like every few months, people have to read this, so here we go again.

A couple of people got their panties in a wad because I disparaged Pit Bulls, and they decided to take the argument personal. Since they demanded that I show my work and provide sources, I did so. Then I demanded that they do the same.

Instead, they engaged in a two part attack: They declared that my sources were not reliable, then engaged in personal attacks. At the same time, there was Internet chest thumping about how they would be willing to go to jail for murder if someone shot their pitbull.

One of those who commented even called me a communist for daring to call CFS because a dog who was known to attack people was permitted to be in the yard alone with the child and had torn off a child’s scalp.

Having had enough of the nonsense, I locked comments on the thread, as there was no productive dialog going on at the time, just Internet chest thumping and finger pointing. After that, I received messages about what an asshole I am and how they won’t be back to read my blog. Here is my answer to that:

I don’t care. This isn’t an airport, you don’t have to announce your departure.

This blog costs me money. I blog because I want to. I don’t make money on advertising, nor do I need large numbers of readers in order to validate my feelings. If you don’t want to read what I write, then don’t read. If you want to comment, that’s great. I love a back and forth debate, but let’s not pretend that “I demand that you provide sources,” then refuting those sources with, “I don’t believe them,” while not providing any sources of your own, then impugning my character.

There are rules here for commenting, and I link to them here. They are simple rules, summarized below-

1. The owner of this blog (me) has the final say on what you can and cannot post. It’s my house, I make the rules. Content here is moderated, and I will not be approving any comments that I find, in my sole judgement, to be unworthy.
2. Deliberately posting statements that are aimed at insulting the blog owner (me) will get your comment tossed in the trash. Feel free to disagree with me, just don’t call names or impugn my character.
3. Don’t deliberately insult others. No personal attacks. Feel free to attack ideas.
4. If you are making a comment about one of my posts, it should be made on the post that you are commenting on, not on another, unrelated post.
5. No spam.
6. I don’t approve comments that are out of bounds.
7. If warnings don’t work and you keep at it, I will ban you from ever posting on this site again. I know that you can pull tricks like IP spoofing, changing your name, etc. So don’t think doing that is going to earn you “I’m so clever” points. It doesn’t make you clever, it makes you an ass.
8. Too many people using those tricks to circumvent the rules is what got us full time moderation, which is a major pain in my ass, and a major time waster for me.
9. When in doubt, please refer to rule #1.

Because of this incident, and the amount of work that arguments like this cause, there will be another rule added to the above list:

If you demand that anyone provide evidence for an assertion that they are making, then you must hold yourself to the same standard when making a counterargument. It takes time and effort to research sources, and replying with “Nuh, uh, I refuse to believe that” while not providing sources of your own to refute them is how an 8 year old debates.

Again, I don’t need everyone to agree with me, but I do require that people be civil and hold themselves to a standard of decorum. Locking the comments on that particular post was the least intrusive thing I could have done. I keep moderation to a minimum here.

With that being said, the people who engaged in personal attacks have seen their entire IP banned from commenting.