Commenting is good. Unless it’s bad and then it’s not good. Here’s a few ground rules for commenting here:
- Comments from first-timers are held in the queue for moderation. You can thank the spammers for that, but the good news is I’m addicted to the internet and generally check everything daily.
- After you have had one comment approved, you’re good to go on all future comments. Unless you really muck things up and cause trouble, then you’re on the watch list. And if you do, you’ll know who you are.
- Also, comments with 2+ links in the comment section automatically go to the moderation queue. So if you have two important links, make two separate comments or sweat it out until I click Approve. Unless one or more links reference any pen!s enh@ncement products and then you get deleted permanently as spam.
- Comments stating agreement are great.
- But since disagreement is both human and church tradition, comments stating disagreement are also great. In fact, they are explicitly encouraged if you would like to discuss something further. How can we ever understand a point of view different from our own without open discussion?
- I reserve the right to think you’re dead wrong (and you may think the same of me), but the point of my engagement in discussion is to find out why you believe the way you do – because I respect the experiences of your life that have brought you to that perspective even though the experiences of my life that have brought me to a different perspective and opinion/belief. The point is I’m not really aiming to convert you (that’s your decision, not mine); I’m aiming to understand you and hopefully for you to understand me.
- If you only want to state your disagreement, you can. But absolutely no personal attacks (i.e. insinuations of eventual burning in everlasting fire and brimstone, low level of fidelity to the gospel). Those are counterproductive to bringing someone to your point of view (dialogue-killers!); therefore, they have no place where discussion is welcome.
- Judicious use of four-letter words is okay. As Mark Twain [supposedly] said, “A good hell and a damn never hurt anybody.” Sometimes “crap” just doesn’t get your point across as well as some other choices. Fine. But really, keep it to a reasonable (minimal) level and avoid using them with reference to others (see above prohibition on personal attacks).
