Oz Politics Blog

I hate reading through pages of the same mindless diatribe and partisan bickering endlessly rehashed and regurgitated. It is boring to read. It detracts from the blog. It deters all but the sophomore pseudo-intellectuals who like the trust of debate without seriously engaging in any meaningful dialogue.

Consequently, I am announcing some changes to the comments policy at Oz Politics:

• Commentators on the blog are asked to abide by the new principle of “adding value” — say something that has not been said before; make it something others will want to read — avoid repeating yourself or others.
• Because I expect every comment to be considered and well argued, I have imposed a general daily comment limit on all commentators. You will only be able to post a maximum of 12 comments per day. The purpose of the general daily comment limit is to reduce the number of mindless, carping and ‘me too’ comments on any thread. By limiting the resource, I am seeking to encourage its wise use.
• If you have been issued a yellow or red card, your daily comment limit will have been further reduced. The first yellow card will impose a limit of six comments per day. The second yellow card will impose a limit of four comments per day. The third yellow card will impose a limit of two comment per day. Red cards prevent comments from being posted.
• A yellow card will impose its reduced daily comment limit for seven days. Red cards have a life of 28 days.

As always, I am happy to chat about the comments policy in general terms. However, I do not enter into correspondence on individual moderation decisions.

Update: I have created some general discussion forums to carry the traffic on the more heavily debated subjects. I will moderate these forums for the more egregious offences, but I will be less concerned with the quality of the arguments. However, with comments on the main blog, I will be stricter in moderating the quality and relevance of comments.

Update #2: I plan to deal with off-topic comments on the blog by moving them to an appropriate forum.