In the past, we have had an extremely hands-off approach to comments here at Seattle Bubble. The only type of comment that was moderated or deleted was blatant spam. It was up to the participants of the discussions to keep things interesting and civil, and for the most part, that is what happened.
Unfortunately, in recent weeks a handful of people have been coming in here and leaving comments that are quite clearly intended to antagonize, anger, and upset others. You can thank this small group of people for ruining the hands-off policy for everybody.
So, starting now and for the foreseeable future, this is the comment policy that will be enforced on Seattle Bubble.
If your comment contains any of the following, it will be either edited or deleted:
- name-calling
- blatant antagonism
- swearing
Antagonism is obviously subjective, but I will probably more readily delete a comment that seems like it might be antagonistic than leave it up.
Also, from now on, no commercial links may be left in the body of the comment. If you want to fill in your business link in the comment form where it says “website,” feel free to do that, and it will be linked to your name. But posts with links to a business in the body of the comment will be edited or deleted. If you want to advertise your business on Seattle Bubble, you need to pay just like everyone else.
Commenters that repeatedly choose to violate these simple rules will be banned.
Feel free to express whatever opinion you want, but find a way to express it that doesn’t come across like a jerk. I gladly welcome dissenting opinions, but I do not welcome rude and hostile trolls. The comment section of Seattle Bubble is intended to be a place for productive discussion of the posts. It is not some sort of internet fight club. If you want to sling insults at people, go find some other forum.
March 4 2009 Addendum: Please keep comments on-topic relative to the post that you are commenting on. For off-topic comments, please use the provided open threads and the forums. Off-topic comments may be deleted or moved to the current open thread.
March 31 2010 Addendum: Comments relating to health care may be posted only on the Health Care Open Thread Smackdown. If you post a comment about health care somewhere else, it will be either deleted or moved to that post.
June 13 2010 Addendum: Registration is not required to comment on Seattle Bubble. That means you’re free to use whatever made-up name you want when you participate in discussion here. HOWEVER, we ask that you pick one name and stick with it. Changing names every few days or weeks is annoying to other people trying to participate in the community, and it’s more unnecessary administrative work for me. If you are found to be changing names, your comments may be deleted.
September 7 2010 Addendum: Comments relating to the global or national economy and not directly related to Seattle-area real estate may be posted only in the Global Economic Open Thread. If you post a comment about the global economy that is not directly related to Seattle real estate somewhere else, it will be either deleted or moved to that post.
February 20 2013 Addendum: Everyone gets up to 5 comments per post, then you’re done. Regular open threads have a limit of 15 and the long-running politics/economics/healthcare open threads have much higher limits. Use your comments wisely.
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I don’t understand how the discussion of “personal attacks” even relates to the new policy. None of the three guidelines require a comment to be a personal attack to be deleted.
It doesn’t matter whether the name-calling, antagonism, or swearing is directed at an individual or a group of people, I’ll be deleting it either way.
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No, I’m right because “renters” is a collective noun – by definition it does not apply to an individual person – thus it could not possibly be a “personal attack”.
And I suppose I could change my handle to Keithsarelosers because that’s not an individual attack either. I’m referring to *all* Keiths, so it’s not personal at all. Oh no.
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Tim: I don’t understand how the discussion of “personal attacks” even relates to the new policy.
Uh, “name-calling” is a form of “personal attack”…or did you mean something else by that? I don’t know, maybe I’m just not clear on the value of these “guidelines”. I didn’t realize there was a true problem that needed addressing in that fashion.
Speaking as a reader who actually contributed in a minor way to the PayPal fundraising, I am disappointed in the application of this new policy (though I’m loving the non-commercialization restrictions!).
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I guess what is troubling to me is that Tim seems to be charged up about the stepped up review policy and is not planning on using it as sparingly as possible. If he was he could just have quietly removed the over the top post and told that person to knock it off. If called on it on the board I don’t think it would have created much of a stir if he posted saying he had to delete a comment that was over the top. He certainly would not have invited people to leave that objected and assumed the worse about them based on that objection.
This post and the resulting discussion has put the community he has built over the past couple of years on notice to self censor or be prepared to be censored by him. By throwing in ‘being a jerk’ , that censoring becomes extremely subjective and therefore very arbitrary.
That’s what I meant by it’s just kinda changes the tone and may well make it less interesting and compelling.
The rebuttal to my argument has basically been that if I object I must want to be able to post those types of remarks. That’s kinda like saying if I object to an unreasonable search of my home I must have something to hide. I have learned over the years that if you feel that way it is really a total waste of my time to try to convince you otherwise.
Bottom line, it’s his board and and his business. I do wish him luck with it and I hope he finds the right balance. Whether he and the regulars like it or not, many bloggers drift away from sites when they start feeling like they are being monitored. That while obscene, racist or over the top attacks are deleted is probably accepted by most as just understood, if it feels like the whole thing is being conditioned it will lose a lot of appeal. Most of us are here because we like reading or having open and frank discussions about the main subject, real estate, and too a lessor extent finance’s and personal approaches to such.
Anyway, I just felt I need to explain myself a little more, I am not trying to antagonize anyone :-)
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Stepehen you are spot on. It already seems that way. RAL contributed in his own way. He must have hit a real chord to contribute to what happened.
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mikal,
If you want to know why the disemvoweling filter was thrown onto RAL, just take a gander at some of his posts. Top-notch trolling, and frankly, it got old.
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I do see your point.
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FWIW, the latest Morgan Stanley “Technology Trends” report (http://www.morganstanley.com/institutional/techresearch/pdfs/TechTrends062008.pdf) highlights “Wisdom of Crowds / Self-Supervising Communities” (on slide 13).
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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a3uzhDOF9FXI&refer=home
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[...] Happy Labor Day. For whatever few people happen to be hanging around here today, here’s an open thread to talk about whatever you feel like (within the bounds of the comment policy). [...]
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Shoddy construction is widespread and the “builders” get away with it.
Visit Homeowners for Better Building (www.hobb.org) and Homeowners Against Deficient Dwellings (www.hadd.com). These are 2 national non-profits made up of volunteers who are vicitms of shoddy work.
We have no laws to protect potential homebuyers when purchasing new construction.
I have seen people foreclose and loose so much at the hands of a builder who walked away free and clear.
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Here in Australia over the years too many people got stuck with badly constructed new homes and poorly renovated homes. Now in most states (still not too certain of WA) that all builders are required to take out an insurance policy to cover the likeliehood of unacceptable/bad construction. Also we have building inspections at set times for all new buildings and they have to be signed off on before any progress payments are made.
Many builders complain about over regulation here but since these policies were implemented, it now is an unusual occurence when a builder goes belly up that people get stuck.
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RE: Jan @ 112 –
GREETINGS June from Australia :-)
You’re right, absurd uncontrolled population growth with concurrent “slapping more glueboard shacks together” creates national debt crisis and subpar construction, especially using unskilled [undocumented] workers “on the cheap”. A lesson America mostly refuses to learn, even though it’s as clear in America as the nose on your face.
Kudos for your new Prime Minister’s backbone on controlling your country’s population growth….America desparately could use a real leader in demography planning like Australia’s. But alas, I can only dream [or perhaps immigrate out of this soon to be 3rd world country, to Australia?....LOL].
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/world/breakingnews/new-prime-minister-signals-slowdown-in-australian-immigration-to-curb-rapid-population-growth-97245129.html
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