Comments Policy

In the past, I haven’t been diligent in moderating people’s comments unless they were send directly to me via e-mail – I promise to do a better job here in the future. Meanwhile, I would like to establish, from the very beginning, a very clear comments policy on this weblog, which is different from other human origins and science blogs comments policies.

Anyone is welcome to leave a comment; however, they will be moderated according to several criteria. First of all, the commenter needs to have a real name. A nameless or aliased commenter is unlikely to become a useful contributor to this weblog. Such commenters are apparently welcome on other blogs, as long as they are harmless and non-subversive, so they don’t need to waste more of their time commenting on Anthropogenesis. They can certainly read this weblog, but if you are anonymous, understated as “Ben” or disguised as “sandblower,” keep your thoughts on human origins a secret, too, – don’t comment here. Second, the commenter ideally needs to have a clear e-profile with a link to his own website/blog/book, so I could have an idea where the person is coming from and why he is in the business of human origins research. Third, the commenter needs to bring value – this could be a smart, knowledgeable critique of my opinions, a creative elaboration of them or an interesting piece of data/news. Fourth, I have partiality for people with academic credentials, but to have them is not a requirement for you, as a commenter, but my privilege as the blog author. Otherwise, I’m an equal opportunity blog owner, and whether you are a science fundamentalist, a creative creationist, a feminist post-modernist does not matter to me.

So, this is the portrait of an ideal commenter on Anthropogenesis. I modeled it on what I have been bringing to other weblogs. Comments will be moderated on a case by case basis, but if you sport a real name, have an established e-presence, have a clear record of why you are interested in what you’re interested in and can add value through your comments, your comment will be published. On other weblogs – and I can say it from experience – these attributes may cause your comments to be censored.