Comment Policy

Since the dawn of the Wallyhood blog in January 2009, we’ve been pretty lucky to only have two or three times when we felt we needed to remove a comment left by a reader. Discourse has been remarkably reasonable: people with radically differing opinions have listened to each other, complimented one another when a good point was made, and occasionally admitted when they were wrong. It has all been very fitting for the character that we admire in Wallingford: thoughtful, inquisitive, respectful, and open-minded.

Mostly.

There have been a few incidents where comments haven’t been respectful. We’re not really sure if it was someone letting their temper get the better of them, or trolls looking for a reaction, but either way, it’s not good for the community we’re seeking to nurture. Each time that happens, it makes someone who has spoken in good faith think twice about continuing to participate in our ongoing conversation and it leaves an example for others that that kind of behavior is acceptable. It is not.

This is partially our fault: we have never made the “rules” explicit, hoping that people’s good sense would be their guide (and that has mostly been true). Today, we’re going to make the rules explicit:

• You may disagree with someone’s opinion (including that of any Wallyhood writer)
• You may express that disagreement with reason and emotion (although we encourage you to back up the emotion with thoughtful, rational argument)
• You may not be mean

Like the rest of this blog, enforcing this is going to be a bit of an experiment, as “mean” is somewhat subjective. It would be simple to say something like “you can call an idea idiotic, but you may not call a person an idiot.” We’re not entirely comfortable with this, because it still leaves rudeness “fair game”. It is not.

On the other hand, we don’t want to create a Polyanna Land, where everyone goes around curtsying and handing each other gum drops. That’s boring and stifles expression.

Instead, let’s think of it like a game of pick-up basketball: you can expect it to be fun, to push you to work harder, and you can also expect to get checked every once in a while. All we’re asking is that you don’t try to throw an elbow, don’t try to hurt someone. It’s a friendly game. If you do check someone hard enough to knock them down, apologize, put out your hand to lift them up and make sure they’re OK.

We’ll be doing our best to enforce this rule by removing posts that are in clear violation. Please be understanding while we find the right level, and thanks for playing.