The policy is simple.

1. I moderate all comments to avoid spam and other possible unfortunate inputs.

2. It might take a while before your comment appears especially if I am travelling.

3. I don’t allow personal attacks. I consider these are different from attacks on ideas held by persons though. If you wish to attack ideas that is fine but then you have to provide an argument and engage with the discussion. Simply saying: “what are you on?”; “this is a mass generalisation”; “you f**kwit”, “this site sucks” etc are not engaging in discussion. All comments like that are deleted immediately so it is better you save your time and not send them in.

4. I will not allow comments that contain comments likely to be slanderous (as best I can judge being a non-lawyer) or which use excessive language that is not necessary for the argument being made.

5. Please don’t publish links to advertising – the complete comment will just be deleted.

6. I welcome free speech but it has to be relevant free speech. Relevance is measured by how well the comment engages with the particular blog topic that the comment is being registered under. If you just want to talk about anything then start your own blog. But given this is my blog then I welcome you to engage with my viewpoint or bounce of the viewpoints recorded by other comments. For or against is fine.

7. I also consider free speech carries a responsibility to “own that speech”. I have noted that those who descend into personal abuse (which I delete) also provide fake E-mail addresses. Then they have the audacity to suggest I advocate censorship.

8. I will also not approve “comments” that appear to be simply advertisements to gain traffic for a rival site. For example, “please see this critique” …