commentI had this little gem of a hate comment land in my inbox (I receive all comments in my inbox and yes I do read them all)ā€¦ in response to a recent post.

This is from Todd August:

F**k You Shane. There’s no other way to say it. You are an a**hole bigot and that’s a fact. Equality soon will be law of the land through the SCOTUS and the ban of gay youth in the BSA will be history in about 3 weeks. deal with it. Oh, and Jackie Robinson would be disgusted with you. šŸ™‚

Edited for vulgarity.

Todd has been banned.Ā  I know some of you may think Caffeinated Thoughts is a free speech zone.Ā  It mostly is.Ā  But since zero tolerance policies are en vogue I thought Iā€™d implement one myself.

If youā€¦

  1. Use profanity.
  2. Engage in a personal attack with me or anyone else.Ā  (This means for you pro-LGBT folks ā€“ you use the words bigot, hater, etcā€¦ you will be banned.Ā  That isnā€™t making an argument itā€™s just smearing people who disagree with you.Ā  We want rational arguments not people emoting.)
  3. Comment off topic (spammers)

You will be banned.Ā  Period.Ā  It doesnā€™t matter what side you are taking.Ā  Personal attacks like this one will be saved and highlighted with your name in future posts (I hope that I donā€™t get enough of these to make it a regular feature, but I want to highlight the ā€œtoleranceā€ of some on the left).

What Todd doesnā€™t realize is that he lost the debate at the very first word.Ā  If you have to resort to tactics like this it means you donā€™t have an argument.Ā  As far as there being ā€œno other way to say itā€ sure there is, pick up a dictionary.

Iā€™m implementing this for a couple of reasons.

  1. It encourages comments.Ā  People will be more apt to comment when it is a safe place.
  2. I donā€™t want people to be turned off by the blog because the comment section is out of control.
  3. It allows for substantive, robust debate.Ā  I donā€™t care if you disagree with me, just donā€™t attack me or use profanity.

If you donā€™t like it then create your own blog and rip me a new one.Ā  I remember a guy who became a cyberstalker who I banned.Ā  He ended up writing a blog at DailyKos and linked to me in order to ā€œflame me.ā€Ā  Hey I appreciated the trafficā€¦ please be sure to click through on the ads.Ā  Anyway, my point is this ā€“ I pay the rent here, so if you donā€™t like the rules ā€“ well tough.

Also because you leave a comment does not mean you are entitled to a response from me or any of my contributors.Ā  Iā€™m a busy guy.Ā  I get tons of emails.Ā  So Iā€™m not always able to respond or sometimes I donā€™t believe it is necessary.Ā  Also donā€™t think Iā€™m going to engage in a lengthy back and forth with you.Ā  There are people who comment and some of my contributors who will do that.Ā  I just donā€™t have the time.Ā  My feeling is if Iā€™m writing a ton in the comments section it is taking time away from writing.Ā  Sometimes questions that crop up in the comments section will spark a new post.

All that to say those who comment in a respectful manner both friends and faithful opposition alike I appreciate your decorum and tact ā€“ this post really isnā€™t addressed to you.

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