<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Ballastexistenz]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://ballastexistenz.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[Mel Baggs]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://ballastexistenz.wordpress.com/author/ameliabaggs/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Comment Policy]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p>I can&#8217;t do a strict comment policy with specific rules, because my brain won&#8217;t work like that.  Everything depends on context.  But here are some basic guidelines:</p>
<p>Positive comments are almost always okay.</p>
<p>Negative comments and disagreement are also almost always okay.</p>
<p>Malice is never okay, even when it tries to be sneaky and hide behind ideas like &#8216;disagreement&#8217;.  I have no tolerance for malice and bullying.  This includes malicious gossip.</p>
<p>Anger is okay.  Attacking people in certain ways, is not okay.  </p>
<p>There are some other things that are not okay, even when people mean well.  I&#8217;ll have to deal with them as they come.  This is pretty rare, though.</p>
<p>Obviously these things are subjective and I will make mistakes.  But better have things be subjective and dependent on context, than rely on a rigid and elaborate set of rules.  Rigid and elaborate sets of rules always manage to make it so that people who can &#8216;play the game&#8217; do well even if they&#8217;re being horribly malicious and nasty, and people who can&#8217;t &#8216;play the game&#8217; lose out even if they&#8217;re not really doing anything wrong.  So I refuse to do that to people.  I can&#8217;t claim that I will always catch the bad things, or that I will never accidentally censor someone for doing something that isn&#8217;t wrong.  All I can do is try my best.</p>
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