I've been really reluctant to moderate the comments here. After a lot of feedback from regular readers, I'm going to start.
I've just banned Zaxis. He is the only person I've ever banned, but he has now been banned on 3 seperate IP addresses. The signal to noise ratio was just becoming entirely unacceptable. I've tried to avoid making any hard rules, because real trouble makers will just weasel around them. I'm starting to get embarrassed by the comments here though, so effective today I have instituted:
The Mullet Rule
Business in front, party in the back!
This has always been my unofficial position. I try to keep posts here relatively safe for work. If any video or audio is over the top or includes Samuel L Jackson, I'll post it in the comments as a Director's Cut. I think that's a reasonable compromise from total censorship. This way if I say something in text your boss would have to be reading over your should to take offense. If it is something that might come unexpectedly out of your speakers it goes in the comments section with lots of disclaimers.
Sometimes it isn't even offensive material, just additional information or videos that I thought would make the article too long.
The comments section is where we can let our hair down. If you are saying stuff that would get you kicked out of a party then it won't fly here either. You're welcome to be critical of whatever you want, but make it substantive. In my reviews if I am being negative about an app I try to go into specific details of my grievances. I expect the same of you and not merely some tirade at a developer. The same goes for any kind of politics or zealotry. You wouldn't go on about politics at a party, nor some Apple vs Android rant. That's just not cool and will be a violation of The Mullet Rule.
Punishment for offenses will be on a case by case basis. My access filters only allow me to ban people from viewing the site, and not simply prevent them from commenting. This is not something I ever want to do, but if you're causing problems and keeping me from working on articles for the site then I'm going to have to do it.
