TIME to update my comments policy, I think.

I have to accept that the tone of many comments left in the past 18 months is, to some extent, my fault. I have been very liberal in my approach to comment moderation, so that even the most sneering and nasty comment gets published if I reckon it’s not defamatory.

Well, no more.

I will be trying more strictly to enforce the “keep to the subject” rule. You want to bang on about your favourite obsession? Be my guest – start your own blog.

Want to try out some really, really clever put-down that you’ve been constructing in your head since last August? Do it somewhere else.

And if your comment is, in my view, needlessly offensive and snide, I’ll delete it without explanation or apology.

When I last updated the Comments Policy, I said this:

If I can be bothered correcting your spelling of “Labour” or “Blair” then I will (you’d be surprised how often people mistakenly spell them “Liebour” or “Bliar” – “i” before “e”, except after “c”, I was always taught). More often than not, such bad spelling will prevent your comment from being published.

Forget that. I don’t have time to correct your ill manners. Any rubbish like that won’t see the light of day.

Read this if you want to know why I’ll be enforcing the dress code more strictly in 2010.

If, however, you want to play nice, if you want to add to a discussion, or even if you want to be critical of me or the Labour Party, fine. Free speech is a good thing and I have a thick(ening) skin.

If you want to link back to your own blog or to another relevant site or article, fair enough, but don’t just post a link with no supporting comment. That’s just lazy, that is.

Formatting comments

If you want to italicise or make your comments bold (embolden?), use these symbols:

Italics: At the start of the section you want to format, use the “less than” sign (<) followed by a lower case “i” and then a “greater than” sign (>) . At the end of the section you want to format, use the same symbols but with “/i” instead of “i”.

For bold, use same as above, except it’s a “b” instead of an “i”.

I trust that’s clear.

Last updated: Wednesday 23 December 2009