Ducksnorts Comments Policy

Ducksnorts is a daily column written by Geoff Young. At present, comments are enabled to further the discussion. Although this site sometimes functions as a message board, it is not a message board.

That said, comments are a large part of what makes Ducksnorts such a great community. We all thrive on the energy of information exchange. To ensure that we are able to use this exchange to its fullest potential, I’ve implemented a few guidelines. Most of these have been in place informally for some time and folks abide by them.

However, there are always new people joining the discussion and they may not be aware of the way we do things around here. So for everyone’s benefit, here are a few simple guidelines to bear in mind during your visit to Ducksnorts. Thanks in advance for helping to keep this a great place to hang out and talk about San Diego Padres baseball!

Last updated: 23 May 2008

  1. I do read every comment posted at Ducksnorts. However, because the site has become so popular (thank you!), it is not always possible for me to respond in a timely manner or even at all. I do my best to be part of the conversation, but writing about baseball is my full-time job, which means that when I’m responding to comments, I’m not working, which is a problem when it comes time to pay the bills. Please don’t misinterpret any lack of participation on my part as lack of interest, and feel free to contact me if you have questions.
  2. Attack positions, not people. Debate is great; we learn a lot from each other by discussing issues and trying to understand various viewpoints. But we learn nothing by launching insults, personal attacks, etc. In general, if you wouldn’t be comfortable saying it to someone’s face, then don’t say it here. When in doubt, try to think of how you would feel if that person addressed you in the same way.
  3. Be sure your comments advance the discussion in some way. Saying the same thing over and over again isn’t civil discourse, and it isn’t welcome here.
  4. I reserve the right to delete any comment at any time. I’m a big fan of free speech so for the most part this applies to spammers who aren’t interested in my policy anyway. Theoretically it would also apply to abusive comments, but we’re a pretty well-behaved bunch so I doubt that will come into play.
  5. Please don’t feed the trolls. Every once in a while someone will leave comments with the sole purpose of inflaming or offending, without making any effort to join in a genuine conversation. If you notice this happening, please feel free to drop me a line, but do not acknowledge the offender on the blog. As with people who run onto the field during a game, if you don’t pay attention to them, you remove their incentive to engage in such anti-social behavior.
  6. I reserve the right to ban individuals from commenting. Again, this is primarily directed at spammers who willfully disrupt the flow of conversation with their anti-social behavior.
  7. Off-topic comments are welcome within reason. Conversations take many turns so feel free to introduce ideas, articles, etc. that aren’t directly related to the post topic but which you feel would of interest to members of the community.
  8. Please don’t use profanity. Although I personally am not offended by this, my goal is for everyone — including children — to feel welcome here, so I’d appreciate it if you could find other ways to express your passion. If you see me on the street, knock yourself out, but let’s keep it clean here.
  9. If you are selling or promoting something, please clear it with me first. I’m a pretty reasonable guy, but I do appreciate a little courtesy. In return, I promise not to set up camp on your front lawn and sell books or shirts. ;-)
  10. Comments that contain multiple outbound links will be placed in the moderation queue before being published. If they’re legit, I’ll run ‘em. Again, this is a measure to help prevent comment spam from cluttering our forum.
  11. Sometimes legitimate comments get caught in the spam filter. First off, sorry about that. Unfortunately I get thousands of pieces of spam each week — another by-product of the site’s popularity — and without the filter, we’d be totally hosed (to get all technical). Second, if your comment gets caught, please do not resubmit it but instead contact me so that I can let it through and help train the software. For those curious, I use a product called Akismet, which learns from its mistakes, but only if it knows it’s made them. If I don’t know that your comments are getting eaten, I can’t take steps to improve the filter and keep them from getting eaten again in the future. So please let me know.
  12. Citing other sources is always welcome. However, I would ask that you be respectful of copyright laws and provide only brief excerpts or, if readers would benefit from the full article, a link that we can follow. Please don’t reproduce entire articles (or even large chunks) in the comments. When in doubt, just link to the source and let folks check it out for themselves.
  13. I reserve the right to change this policy at any time.

Thanks in advance for your partnership. If you have any questions or concerns about the Ducksnorts comments policy, please drop me a line and I’ll be happy to discuss.