Comments Policy

Last Revision: April 10th, 2008
Typos Corrected: June 12th, 2008

Preamble:

In the past, when I had a smaller fan base, I maintained a very open discussion policy based on a belief in free speech and the thought that this would encourage the most feedback. Now that thousands of people are reading Tales of MU on a daily basis, it’s become necessary to take a more ordered approach.

Please note that the purpose of these rules is not to stifle criticism or dissent. I honestly don’t have a problem with dissent. The perception that I do stems more from the fact that I enjoy it too much and can spend hours arguing with somebody I disagree with than from any attempt I’ve ever made to shut people up. That in itself is another reason for these rules… by cutting down on arguments on the board, I can cut down on the time I spend debating instead of writing.

However, when the conduct of some people on the comment board starts driving others away… and particularly when the “some people” are mostly contributing rants and insults and the “others” are providing actual discussion… it becomes necessary to take some kind of action.

Amble:

So, here are the rules. By commenting on this site, you agree to abide by them.

1. The most important rule—which trumps all others—is the House Rule. What is the House Rule? It goes like this: “My house, my rules.” This is also known as the Golden Rule: “Whoever has the gold, makes the rules.” It’s my gold that pays for bandwidth. Disagree with me about matters of taste and opinion all you like, but if I tell you to knock something off, knock it off. If I say a subject is closed or dropped, there’s no “last thoughts” or “one more thing.” If you would like to discuss Tales of MU on your terms instead of mine, you can always set up an off-site discussion group.
2. I reserve the right to delete any comment in its entirety, or any portion of a comment, as I see fit. In the latter case, the post will be marked to show where content was removed.
3. Respect other posters. I don’t mean you have to “get along.” Disagreement is fine… even strong disagreement and outright argument. Leave insults at home, however.
4. Realize that “respecting” somebody isn’t the same thing as “agreeing with” them. I don’t write stories thinking that everybody’s going to agree on how to interpret them or that they’ll all feel the same way about the issues that I raise, so there is going to be disagreement… even strong disagreement.
5. You are not in charge of moderating the board. I make it my practice to read every comment posted on this site, regardless of where and when. If a post needs moderating, I will see it and get to it. If you post just to point it out, that’s one more post I have to wade through. If you post to tell the offender that their post isn’t allowed, you’re likely to spark a flame war. In short, make my job easy and don’t help me out.

   On a related subject, I have no problem with people making short posts to show their enthusiasm/appreciation for the story. While these sometimes seem to take up a lot of space, posts which do nothing but complain about them frequently take up more.

6. Please try to keep your posts reasonably on-topic. Some chapters have been taken over in the past by sprawling arguments on gun control, evolution, and prescription drugs. In order to make sure that people who want to discuss the story have a place to do so, I’m going to try to shut these conversation down before they get going in the future. This means if I tell people to drop something, it needs to be dropped… no “one more things” or “my last thought.”

   Using the comment section to shoot me a quick question is fine. Discussing something from another fantasy story or game or even a real world thing which the story alludes to or reminds you of is fine. It’s when the side arguments branch off that we run into a problem.

7. Finally, the Cover My Ass clause. Without this clause, I wouldn’t be able to interact with readers or provide official venues for discussing and speculating on the story for fear that somebody who correctly guessed where a plotline is going would take it into their head that their “Wouldn’t it be cool if…?” was where I got the idea in the first place.

   The simple fact is that I don’t take ideas from fans. I have more than enough of my own. To put it black and white (or black and some sort of cream color):

   By posting on this site or otherwise communicating a thought or idea about the story to me, you give up the right to be compensated should a similar concept appear in the actual story. You agree that corrections or technical improvements you offer are understood to be helpful suggestions and do not entitle you to compensation or credit.

8. These rules are subject to change at any time.

Postamble:

And that’s it. Them’s the rules. Comments are open on this page, so feel free to post questions and request clarifications. I’ll append a FAQ to this page collecting the most common questions that come up, here and elsewhere. For now, here’s some finer points about what is meant by “respect”:

• Insults are not respectful, so do not insult other posters. Period. Standard boilerplate about not insulting groups of people.
• Do not call other posters by a diminutive or degrading variation of their name. If you’re arguing with Jarvis123, don’t call him “Jarvey Dear” and then act surprised when he gets peeved and your post gets deleted.
• Do not refer to anybody by a gender other than the one they identify as. This doesn’t just go for transfolks and the genderqueer… don’t call a guy a little girl or speculate that a woman is actually a man. When you do that, you’re actually degrading everybody.
• If you find yourself typing “I don’t want to offend anybody, but…” or “I don’t want to be an asshole, but…”, think twice about what you’re about to type. And then don’t type it.
• Please realize that this story i read by people of many sexual orientations, races, nationalities, and religions… yes, even Christians. There are no “safe targets” for humor here. If the story’s dealing with religion, you can certainly talk about the practices of certain members of certain religions and how you don’t like them, but blanket insults like “Christians suck” will not be tolerated.
• At the same time, it must be realized that this story has a large audience of GLBTQ (gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered/queer) folk reading it. You don’t have to be any of those to read and enjoy the story. You don’t even have to understand or like such things. I’m not the Thought Police. However, you do need to understand that making disparaging statements about these broad groups will not be tolerated. This isn’t actually a special rule… the same is true of any other group. It just seems to need pointing out, for some reason.
• Even if somebody’s disagreeing with you and telling you that (in their opinion) you are wrong, you still don’t get to insult them.
• Yes, calling somebody dense, stupid, or close-minded because you’ve been arguing your point with them and they still don’t agree is considered an insult.