As Blondihacks reaches a wider audience, it has been increasingly difficult to maintain a certainly level of decorum and civility in the comment threads. To that end, I’m adding an official commenting policy.
First and foremost, please comment! Participate! Join the conversation! Blondihacks thrives when the comment threads are vibrant, and your feedback is one of the main reasons I’m still doing this after all these years. So please do come on in- the water is warm! I just ask that you don’t pee in the pool. To that end:
It’s startling that you need to tell people this, but please be nice to each other and to me. We all have a bad day sometimes, but channel that energy into krav maga or fine whiskey or video games, or whatever else works for you. Don’t drink-and-drive, and don’t rage-and-internet, please.
Blondihacks is designed to be a place for people of all stripes to talk about the projects at hand, share interesting ideas for improvements, and relate our shared experiences. It is not a platform for you to tell everyone how smart you are, or to work out your issues with women who have the gall to speak on the internet. Think about how to word what you want to say in a way that makes it about the topic at hand. How can the project be built upon, or what similar experiences did you learn an interesting lesson from? Make it about the content. If your comment needs to be about your own knowledge and experiences, speak from a position of humility and understanding that other people may do things for reasons you aren’t aware of.
Despite being female, I do actually know what I’m doing sometimes. This will come as a shock to most of the internet, judging by my twitter feed. I grew up on farms and ranches, and have been doing electronics, software, metalworking, fabrication, auto mechanics, and woodworking my entire life. I have several years of post-secondary education in many of those same topics. All that said, creative and interesting suggestions to the projects here are strongly encouraged! The secret sauce is in how you say it. Approach other people with an assumption of competence on their part. Odds are they already considered the thing you’re about to say they did wrong, or they already know the thing that you’re certain they don’t. Assuming you know better and pronouncing your wisdom as though it came from stone tablets is called “mansplaining”, and it isn’t welcome here. I have an editorial policy of being self-effacing and humble in my writing. That is politeness- it is not the golden opening you’ve been waiting for to drop some super boss man knowledge on a naïve pleeb.
If you’re furiously composing an email/tweet/letterbomb about free speech and how rules like this are ruining America, please consider this xkcd cartoon. Yes, you absolutely have a right to say anything you want to me. However, my blog is not your platform. If you come into my home and shit on the furniture, don’t be surprised if I don’t invite you to my annual Firefly-themed barbecue.
Violating this commenting policy will result in one of the following, in order of severity of the violation:
If all of this makes you Super Internet Mad™, consider that the sum total of this policy is basic rules for not being a douchebag to people you have never met. If it still bothers you, maybe you should go start your own internet elsewhere. We’d like to keep this one nice.
Thanks for your understanding. The vast vast majority of the Blondihacks readership are delightful, insightful, curious, interesting people. Let’s all band together and keep the outliers from ruining things for the rest of us.