I want my comment section to be fun for you to read and fun for me to reply to. I want it to be a world where communication happens the way I want it to happen.
This isn’t a democracy and I’m not an authority figure. I’m just another human being like you. But this is my channel and I’m running it according to my chosen values (”turquoise” in spiral dynamics).
If you’ve listened to episode 2 of my podcast (“Stop Setting Boundaries“), you know that boundaries are rules we impose on our own behavior, not on that of others. So, as an exercise in setting boundaries, I’m imposing this comment policy on myself.
The Policy
I will delete comments that consist of:
- Criticism from an account that doesn’t show a (real) full name and photo
- Trolling (making up bullshit just to stir the pot)
- Correcting me without stating and standing behind a worldview
- Anything that makes me want to reply “so what???”
- Explaining what you think other commenters meant
- Emojis without words
- Gibberish
- Quoting memes without adding anything original
- Ellipses at the beginning or end of sentences
- Referring to me in the third person (“bro thinks…”, “Him:…”, etc)
- Referring to my audience as “us” or “we”
- Warning me that my actions are going to cause me to lose my audience
- Using “genuinely curious”, “genuinely interested”, “genuinely wondering”, etc.
- Calling me childish or immature
- Derogatory statements or questions about my mental health
- Telling me to chill or relax, etc.
- Calling me a troll or asking if I’m a troll
- Sealioning (criticism disguised as innocent questioning)
- Dogpiling (joining in on any criticism of me that has already been established by others)
- Accusing me of spreading misinformation or being misleading
- Demanding that I stop producing content or writing comments or anything else
Some of these are open to interpretation, and I’m the final judge. That’s the whole point. These aren’t rules for my commenters, but rules for me (listen to the podcast episode about boundaries).
I want to make it clear that the above comments aren’t “bad” in every context. But, in the context of my comment section, I don’t want them. They don’t lead to the kind of bingeworthy reading material I want, and they make it hard for me to write the kind of replies I want to write. I’m aiming for quality over quantity.
I’m still trying to figure this out, so these rules may change at any moment.
Please let me know if anything is unclear.
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