Substack Comment Policy

Tyranny meets Victorian Sufi Buddha Lite.

I have been on the internet since I was about five; I’ve read blogs and Livejournals and hung out on a wide variety of social media sites, and in all this time I have run into two popular places with reliably polite conversation: Shamus Young (RIP)’s Twenty Sided Tale, and Scott Alexander’s Slate Star Codex. Both of these followed a moderation policy of “reign of terror” - freely banning people if the moderator thought they were pushing things.

Observing that, while this strategy might fail, every other strategy will fail, I have therefore decided to risk the reign of terror.

Since it should have a formal justification behind it and Shamus didn’t state his and Scott did, I will go with Scott’s version. My comment policy will be Victorian Sufi Buddha Lite. For those who don’t want to read the post - a Victorian saying attributed to every respectable person (including many Sufis and the Buddha) is that you should only say things if they are true, necessary and kind. Scott limited himself, and I limit myself, to two of those: If something is false, or even debatable - you aren’t sure it’s true - you should only say it if it needs to be said, and also it’s kind. If something is unnecessary, if it’s not on-topic, you’d better be sure it’s true and better be sure the person you’re saying to will take it positively. And if it’s not kind, it needs to be “that is spam” levels of true and necessary.

I will, to this, add two other things. First: This is not a place for contemporary political arguments. You can debate politics anywhere else on the internet. Not here. What’s “contemporary?” Well, if it took place after 1918, that’s a little risky; if it took place after 1948, that’s a little more risky, and if it took place after 2000 you had better be sure you are true, kind, necessary and that someone who disagrees with you about all political issues since 2000 would agree. Since the Tragedy takes place in 2013 I’ll allow limited discussion of the present or near-past with reference to stories and settings based on Earth at a specific historical date, but if people push it to get into an argument about politics they should expect to be banned.

Second, while I think fanfiction is probably net-positive-utility to write, fanfiction of my stuff makes my brain itch and so I try quite hard to avoid it. While I have absolutely no objection to people putting up whatever stories they want to write on AO3, People should not post or discuss fanfiction of my works on my Substack.

Thank you for your cooperation. Hopefully this will never come up.