How we talk here
Community guidelines
This blog only works if people say what they actually think. That needs a room where being wrong out loud is survivable — which means a few rules, kept short.
Argue with the idea, not the person
Disagreement is the whole point of this place. Take apart an argument as hard as you like. The moment it turns into a claim about the person making it, it stops being useful to anyone reading.
Nobody owes you their story
People here sometimes write about things that happened to them. Do not demand proof, do not interrogate, and do not treat someone's experience as a debating position they have to defend.
You can swear. You cannot demean
Strong language describing an experience is fine — sometimes it is the only honest word. Slurs are not, and neither is language that reduces a group of people to less than people. The filter is built around that distinction, not around rude words.
Questions in good faith are always welcome
You will not be shouted down for not knowing something, or for holding a view you have not fully examined yet. That is what this blog is for. Asking in order to bait is a different thing, and it reads differently.
No threats, no outing, no pile-ons
Threatening someone, sharing their private details, or organising other people against them will get the account blocked with no warning. There is no version of this that is a joke.
Stay roughly on the subject
Comments are for the piece they sit under. Promotional links, copy-pasted manifestos and off-topic arguments get removed — not because they are wrong, but because they are somewhere else's conversation.
What happens when something crosses the line
Comments run through an automatic check before they appear. Slurs and threats are refused outright. Language that reads as aimed at a person rather than an idea is held for me to read — held, not deleted, and you will see it marked as waiting while it is in the queue.
Everything else posts immediately. If something gets through that should not have, the report link under each comment brings it to me.
Accounts that keep crossing the line get suspended, which means you can still read but not post. Threats, doxxing and organised harassment get the account blocked outright.
I moderate this myself and I will sometimes get it wrong. If I have, say so.