I. In principle, comments are quite welcome
I am happy about every comment that is really referring to the subject of the article or has another good cause to appear in relation to my blog, the subjects being discussed and the subjects which are of interest to me and the readers.
When commenting, please be kind, try to be understanding and helpful. If you start feeling incensed, which, I suppose, will not happen quite often on this blog, better breathe and wait a while before posting or replying.
We want a better world, not discord. Looking at and discussing what is right may be fine, but let us look for Truth, not for being right in our opinion. Then, something great can emerge.
II. Most comments are being moderated
Comments may quite often be moderated. You will not see them until I will have checked them. Depending on whether I am online or not, this may happen fairly quickly or take a day or two. If I am on holidays, it can last as long as, well… the holidays.
But please do not let that stop you from commenting! Your comment may still appear quite quickly, just do not be disheartened, if it does not.
If it does not appear at all, the reasons may be found in the reasons why comments are, in principle, on moderation. These are:
- to avoid SPAM
- to protect the author
- to protect the author and the readers
1. As the number of SPAM messages has increased, I have stopped checking every comment marked as SPAM by the system on whether it really is. It may happen, therefore, that comments which are legitimate are filtered out.
If you feel your comment has been not published or immediately deleted without a good cause, I encourage you to let me know.
2. As the internet has more and more become the focus of doubtful legal undertakings by many a government, the legal situation in the country or area where the author of the blog or the article you have commented on, lives or has interests is being taken into account when he decides whether to publish a comment or not. Content that may be legitimate or even true may still not be published if the laws in these countries or areas would not allow. If you feel that is censorship, feel free to engage in a (please: friendly, polite…) conversation with the author by other means. But please do not expect him to change his decision. He would be happy to explain it to you, though, if you should be sincerely interested.
But there are other platforms you can use for posting such content. The Electronic Frontier Foundation may be a good place to get some information on the subject of free speech in general.
3. In a very few cases, the author may not publish or may delete a comment because he does not wish to give a platform to the thoughts or energy expressed therein, mostly due to spiritual reasons.
4. The author is a poet and loves beautiful language. Any posts containing inappropriate language will either be edited – if, in that case, you should not like the result, please feel free to request a deletion of the entire comment – or deleted.
These policies may change once in a while.