Thanks for your patience

I was out of town and got back to a huge pile of work and other urgent demands.

Thanks to everyone for your patience (see, I do know how to spell). I'll try to get to all the comments and adding new posts asap.

Just a hint on comments: if you want a comment answered quickly then keep it short and only address one issue. Long comments addressing several issues usually have to be put off until I have time to spend on them, and in the next couple of weeks I don't think I'm going to have much spare time.

More Rules for Comments and Questions

I welcome honestly interested questions and civilized comments.

I will reject any comments from someone called "Anonymous" or who uses "Anon" in their user name.

I prefer comments and questions from people with actual profiles. I won't reject a comment or question from someone just because they have a hidden profile, but if the question or comment is in the gray area of my rules then it is more likely to be rejected.

I do not discuss what is or is not on the Advanced Courses (also known as OT levels). So if you bring up anything that is actually on those courses or that is rumored to be on those courses (whether it is correct or not) I will reject your comment.

Other rules

My policy on comments

In the past I've received complaints about the fact that I moderate the comments on my blog. I've been accused of stifling free speech and only allowing through worthless, censored pap. I've even had nasty comments that challenged me to post them and accused me of having no huevos if I didn't.

I actually did begin to wonder if maybe there was something wrong with moderating my comments, but to my rescue came Jeff Atwood. Jeff firmly believes that a blog without comments is not a blog. I subscribe to his blog and I recently came across a post called, "Finally, a Definition of Programming I Can Actually Understand" which begins with a discussion of the merits of allowing comments on your blog.

He doesn't moderate but he does "... scrutinize every comment, and I remove a tiny percentage of them: they might be outright spam, patently off-topic, or just plain mean. I like to refer to this as weeding my web garden. " So whilst allowing comments, he moderates the real bad stuff after the fact.

In his article he refers to Joel Spolsky (another guy whose blog I follow) who takes quite a different view, namely that comments are a waste of time and a distraction from the ideas that a blog post is trying to communicate. He quotes Dave Winer, who says that blogs should be the unedited voice of a person and that if you want to comment then get your own blog.

So, here I am being presented with two very convincing arguments: 1) allow comments, with minimal moderation and 2) to hell with comments. What should I do?

Decisions, decisions.

Well, as usual, I think the best route through this minefield is the middle road. Extremes tend to be ... well, extreme. So, my policy is to hit the middle road between the two and say: This blog is (as Dave Winer puts it) my voice and I will allow comments which I feel contribute to what I'm trying to say.

Questions are a different kettle of fish and I already have a policy on those (Questions about Scientology).

So that's my two cents on the subject. What do ya'll think about comments, the two extremes of handling them and my solution?

Patience is a Virtue

For everyone waiting for a comment reply, I can only apologize and plead extenuating circumstances. Life, the Universe and Everything is conspiring to make my life very busy just now, so you may have to wait till the weekend or even longer for a response. Part of the problem is that some of the comments are really loooooong. How you comment is up to you but please take pity on me and try to make them shorter. One suggestion is to keep a comment to one subject – not sure how workable that will be, but maybe you could give it a try. There are more of you than me and I have a limited amount of time to devote to the blog so every little helps. And do remember that Patience is a Virtue :)

Questions About Scientology

If anyone has any questions about Scientology then I am willing to answer them. Please post your question as a comment to this post.

My rules are:

• Questions should be asked politely.
• If a question is worded in an offensive, sarcastic or antagonistic way then you won't get an answer.
• If a question contains links to negative profiles or sites or to profiles or sites I don't like in some way then I may reject the comment, but I may give an answer to a reworded version of the questions which I will put in my answer. In other words you won't have to post it again.

After all, this is my site and I get to set the rules :) You can set the rules on your site!

(27 Jan 08 Addition) My original idea for this post was that I'd get a question: "What is abcde?" and then I'd post the answer "It is ghijk". Simple. However that's not how it's turning out. I'm getting long comments with several questions and lots of explanations and side comments. While I don't mind that at all, it sort of defeats the purpose of the page, which was to have short questions and answers. I don't want to stifle people, so keep asking questions however you like, but forgive me if I cut your post down to a simple "What is abcde?" so I can keep the page readable. If you have a questions that relates to a specific post on this blog then please make the comment on the page of that post.

(28 Jan 08 Addition) Wow, this post is proving to be popular. Please forgive me if I take a while to answer a question. I have other things I do in life too :). If you don't see an answer within a few days please be patient. I will get to you.)

(28 Feb 08 Addition) This page is getting loooooong and I don't think it is going to be very workable for people to see their answers here. So, ask your questions here and I'll post the answer as a blog article rather than as just a comment. Of course, you can always post questions and comments to specific articles and I'll answer them there, unless I think they are something that would be of broad interest in which case I'll also post them as a blog article.

Thanks again to everyone who has asked a question. Sorry if I'm slow in replying, but if you follow my guidelines I promise I'll answer eventually. Be patient :)