A friendly, lively, and welcoming community is one of the most crucial parts of here’s the thing. This is a safe place to converse, share our experiences, and give each other advice. Fostering a vibrant and supportive community is one of my primary goals for here’s the thing, and comments play a key role in making that happen.

While almost every comment on here’s the thing is polite, thoughtful and constructive, there’s always a killjoy looking to crash the party.

Here’s my policy: comments that are abusive, off-topic, unnecessarily mean-spirited or otherwise inappropriate will be deleted immediately, at my sole discretion. End of story.

A few more ground rules:

• Thoughtful, concrete, and relevant comments are always encouraged, and I look forward to the discussion.
• Please stick to the topic. Comments that veer off into rants or flames that aren’t directly related to the topic at hand will be deleted.
• I have no problems with readers who disagree with me, or with the opinions of other readers. In fact, I welcome a lively—and friendly—debate. But all comments must be substantial, on-topic, and considerate; those that aren’t will be subject to deletion.
• Any hateful, vulgar, racist or sexist comments will be deleted immediately.
• The community at here’s the thing is not interested in reading a rant about how I’m biased toward or against a given company, product, or service. Let’s keep the discussion positive, on-topic, and substantial. Those who can’t will find their comments sent to the dustbin, pronto.
• Personal attacks against another reader, or me personally, are strictly forbidden. Period.
• Any comments containing “spam,” including links to outside sites unrelated to the topic at hand, will be deleted.
• The generally accepted Internet etiquette is to refrain from using ALL CAPS (that is, all capital letters) in comments—it’s considered (and sounds like) yelling. Comments written in all caps for no good reason will be deleted.
• Please don’t post the same comment over and over again. Duplicate comments will be deleted.
• Feel free to courteously disagree with anything that I write. But comments along the lines of “this tip is totally obvious” or “everyone already knew this” aren’t helpful or relevant to the community, and they’re insulting to readers who didn’t already know the tip—and yes, such comments will be deleted. Those who think the tips or how-tos I deem tip-worthy for here’s the thing are beneath them should feel free to frequent another tech blog.
• Nobody’s perfect. I hate typos as much as the next person, but they happen. If you find a goof in one of my stories, by all means, feel free to courteously let me know. Diatribes about my poor writing skills or the lack of copy editors serve only to distract and disrupt the conversation, and will be deleted.
• Ever read a comment that is so glowing—or, on the flip side, so negative—about a given product that you suspect it’s been written by a spokesperson, a company insider, a competitor, or some other interested party? I have too—and when I do, my policy is to click the “delete” button. If you do happen to be connected to a particular product or its competition and you want to comment on a related post, please do so—but only if you clearly disclose your association.
• See a comment that you didn’t like? Click the little flag icon directly beneath the comment to bring it to my attention.
• Last but not least, I reserve the right to delete any comment that I see fit, at my sole and final discretion.

Now, the good news is that 99.99% of the comments on here’s the thing fall perfectly within bounds, and the vast majority of readers will never have occasion to even glance at these guidelines.

That said, for those who enjoy throwing stink bombs, I have a simple message: comments that diminish the enjoyment of everyone else won’t be tolerated.

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