COMMENTS AND PRIVACY POLICY

October 19, 2020:

In the last two years or so I’ve had increasing problems with certain types of comments. At the same time, after a decade of trying to be polite, my patience in dealing with them and the people who leave them has also dropped precipitously. My vision of this blog has changed over the years — from that of a personal journal to that of a virtual water cooler for fans, for instance. But I’ve never seen it as a public service or a place where anyone can say anything. If you do something uncivil, depending on my mood, you may get it all back in your face.

So don’t come here to start a fight, especially not one about an established fact. Don’t leave a drive-by comment about how a five-year-old conversation that you haven’t either read carefully or understood damages the honor of Richard Armitage or offends you personally. Don’t take this blog as an opportunity for religious mission of any kind. I have made and hope to continue to make and cultivate all kinds of friendships here, but if you’re a total stranger, don’t presume on a friendship that doesn’t yet exist. Enter the conversation carefully and join the community gradually. Above all: don’t tell me what to do on my own blog.

Below you can read the previous rules that I tried to follow and enforce. You can still assume that if you break any of these, you will be blocked or banned or whatever. The main difference and the reason for the update of this policy: I used to try to be polite about it. Those days are over.

***

I (Servetus) invite anyone who’s interested to comment to do so. The more the merrier! The blog records the ongoing discussions of a group of Richard Armitage’s fans since February, 2010.

Lurkers are also welcome, of course.

I seek to make this blog a welcome place for all fans of Richard Armitage of good will and have instituted a few rules in service of that end.

The following rules are subject to change without notice. I retain the right to edit or delete any comment as necessary. I am the one who decides if a comment breaks a rule. All of my decisions are final.

Some posts have “comments closed,” usually means that I know I won’t have time or energy or nerves to respond to comments. If an issue on such a post is burning, contact me via the template in the side bar.

Some “comments closed” posts are reblogged; in these cases, please leave comments at the original blog.

Anonymity, pseudonymity, and privacy

WP software automatically records the IP address of everyone who leaves a comment.

I recommend that if you wish to take part regularly in conversations here, you pick a pseudonym to make it easier for other commentators to identify you.

The “leave a reply” template allows you to comment as “anonymous” by entering that, but you will still have to leave an email address. The email address is not published with your comment, but WP keeps track of it. Of course, you can leave a fake email address, but people who leave non-existent email addresses are automatically suspect of maliciousness. Keep in mind that because the software records an IP address, naive sockpuppeting is easy to spot.

I can see your email and IP address but I do not routinely look at them, and I personally will not share this information with any third party. On a few occasions I have used the email address left with comments to contact a commentor.

A free version of Statcounter is also installed on this site. At present, I only look at it when a troll or troll-generated traffic pops up.

In May 2018, I enabled a blog function that informs users of the WordPress.com privacy policy per instructions from the platform, in conjunction with the implementation of the EU GDPR rules.

Passworded posts

Posts that contain NC-17 content are passworded.

The password is always listed in the subject line of the post because it is not meant as a total barrier. Readers should judge for themselves on the basis of the title whether they wish to read (these posts usually have short explanations of why they’re passworded in the beginning of the post as well). Passwords prevent people from reading accidentally and keep the posts in question off of other platforms, out of the WP reader, and exempt from search engine indexing.

Before Summer 2012, posts containing RPF or fantasies or stories about Richard Armitage were passworded. They now may be visible / searchable, but these posts are still labeled in the subject line or near the beginning as RPF. Some *ooof* posts by Guylty may not be labeled.

Comment moderation and content

All first-time commentators are moderated. After that, readers may comment at will, provided they observe the rules below.

Feel free to put hyperlinks into comments; be aware that the spam filter automatically holds up any comment with more than one hyperlink in it.

Occasionally comments go to moderation for reasons I can’t explain, but I look intermittently to make sure no real comment is held up or ends up in spam. If your post ends up in moderation, feel free to nudge me via the contact template in the sidebar.

A. The following are absolutely prohibited

Some sorts of remarks simply destroy the possibility of conversation. These are absolutely prohibited. First-time comments will not be let through; violators are subject to permanent ban.

1. Insulting me personally, especially calling me names.

2. Telling me what I may or may not write.

3. Behavior indicative of malicious sockpuppeting or intent to deceive.

4. An initial or very early comment that in my opinion is intended to pick a fight or troll.

5. All anti-Semitic or pro-white supremacist comments.

6. Any or all mission for any religion, but especially Christian mission. [added 10/19/20].

B. The following are subject to ban

After one warning, anyone who persists in leaving these types of comments will be blocked from publishing any future comments. Comments may be edited or deleted at my discretion. If you are blocked, I will leave a notice on the offending comment that got you blocked explaining the reason with reference to this policy.

1. Racial slurs or hate speech of any kind and especially hate speech regarding sex or sexual orientation. “me + richard armitage” is an ally blog.

2. Ad hominem argument, defined as a personal attack made on the blogger or other commentators (as opposed to disagreement with their arguments, which is allowed / encouraged). My detailed discussion of ad hominem and why I don’t allow it is found here.

C. Prohibited / subject to editing or moderation

Other types of comments, while they do not destroy a conversation, still tend to shut down conversation or make participants in a conversation feel delegitimated or unsafe.

Should these appear tangentially or accidentally, I will edit or delete the problematic comment and you will be warned. If the behavior persists and you are unable to stop it to accommodate yourself to the culture here, your comments will be subjected to automatic moderation and you will no longer be free to comment at will. If you are moderated, I will leave a notice on the offending comment explaining the reason with reference to this policy. If I spend more time editing your comments then publishing, you may become subject to absolute blocking.

3. Fan-on-fan policing. Do not criticize non-criminal fandom practices of other fans either here or elsewhere (by calling other unspecified fans “crazy” or “stalkers,” for instance). You may disagree with and criticize their points of view, but do not attack them personally.

4. Moralizing about how some aspect of fandom manifested here or elsewhere is ethically wrong. People from many different cultures and of many different ages and experience levels in fandom come here and — beyond the consensus that fans should not break applicable laws — we’re not going to agree about what’s appropriate. No one involved enough in a fandom to leave a comment here lacks a conscience. Most of us think a great deal about the legitimacy of what we do. Also, after more than eight years, frankly, I’ve heard it all before.

5. Delegitimation of the blog as “too intellectual” or “too serious” or “taking the false approach.” Don’t like the approach the blog or a particular post  takes — don’t read! I am a former academic and no question is too big or small for me; no level of concentration on a problem is negative. For more on the academic approach to questions, read my statement here.

6. Delegitimation of bloggers and commentators here, or other fans, as “too emotional,” “overinvolved,” “obsessed,” etc. I take emotions seriously here or I wouldn’t be blogging. Armitageworld is for everyone.

7. Intentional trolling — saying something the commentator knows will make everyone angry with the express purpose of doing so — including “concern” trolling and/or repeating an opinion ad infinitum in a situation where it is gauged to annoy.

Occasional / one-time commenting restrictions

Some posts have additional caveats on types comments to be allowed, usually because the post verges on a controversial topic that I have to mention in order to write the post, but doesn’t want to take up as a topic in itself because the discussion is either predictable or not something I want to talk about at the time or ever (usually politics goes in the later category).

For example, I’ve written about the aesthetics of watching smoking on screen but asked readers to refrain from discussing the negative health consequences of smoking (which are not in doubt). Or I’ve written about potential perceptions of politics in a particular work of Armitage’s, but asked readers to refrain from political discussions on the topic.

I don’t have a clear policy on moderation in this situation, except that I will edit the material out and ask you politely to stop commenting in disregard of the restriction and go from there.

***

As your decision not to aggravate me enhances my productivity, I thank you for your cooperation.

[revised by Servetus, October 20, 2013; revised again, July 4, 2014; revised again, October 14. 2017; revised again, May 26, 2018; revised again, October 19, 2020.]