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COMMENTS
Most articles are open for comment. Commenters* do not need to register, but we recommend that you do join the Disqus system which is widely used, and has numerous benefits: in particular you will receive email notification of replies and new comments on the pages on which you have commented.
Comments we like. We enjoy and appreciate expressions of support, but we also welcome comments disagreeing with our articles, even if passionately (but politely) expressed. We are looking for thoughtful and clearly expressed comments, with meaningful discussions based on reason and evidence. We do not mind if discussion strays off-topic from the original article, as long as it is relevant to the general themes of the site (see the page About this blog). Pictures are allowed, as long as they are relevant. Links to relevant content on your own website is welcomed.
Comments we don’t like.
- Comments including racist remarks or inciting hatred or violence.
- Comments including swear words.
- Comments which abuse or insult authors or other commenters.
- Comments which contain large amounts of copied and pasted material from other sites. Instead, give a brief summary or selected quotations with a link to the original.
- Repetitive comments making no new points.
Penalties. Offending articles may be edited or deleted. In serious cases, commenters may be banned. There will always be at least one warning before action is taken.
ARTICLES
We welcome contributed articles which are relevant to the themes of this site, and in sympathy with its general approach. We would particularly like some contributors with knowledge of Judaism, Islam and Buddhism. If you are interested, please add a comment on this page with a brief indication of the topics you could write about, and we will get back to you by email.
BOOK REVIEWS
The comment section on items in the BOOKS category is reserved for reviews of the book, not for general discussion based on its description. Please do not comment unless you have read the book.
* Note. Spell-checkers flag the word ‘commenter’. It is true that it does not appear as a separate entry in the Oxford English Dictionary. However, it is listed under the verb ‘comment’ as a derivative noun. The original word for someone who comments is ‘commentator’. But there is now a verb ‘commentate’, a back formation from ‘commentator’, which has the specific meaning of ‘report on an event as it occurs’, for example, on a sports event. If someone who commentates is a commentator, I argue that someone who comments should be called a ‘commenter’. After all, someone who runs is a runner, not a ‘runnator’.