On Banning Commenters

Anchor Rising's policy on deleting comments and banning commenters is being turned up a notch. If you're commenting on this Web site, you're doing so to advance a conversation. Some of you are using comments as an outlet for political spin... and that's alright, too. But when the comment sections get to the point that contributors dread rhetoric for which their posts are providing platforms, things have gone too far.

Ultimately, all we ask is civility, a measure that has apparently been too loose thus far. As of now, obvious logical fallacies bearing offensive insinuations will no longer be tolerated. Example:

... you must be that special type of guy who catches his wife sleeping around but pretends that nothing happened instead of throwing her out. ...

Unless you enjoy seeing your no-good wife sleeping around with other guys....

I'm well aware that some will argue that such rhetoric stays on the fair side of debate, and in some contexts, I might agree. In the context of this Web site, however, we've unlimited latitude to decide the tone that we believe to be most consistent with our goals. In lieu of the work of installing a registration system — which may scare away many a valuable commenter — and of ceasing comments altogether, an increasingly strict (as needed) editorial policy seems like a reasonable approach.

Of course, sincere explanations — and apologies, if necessary — can lead to unbanishment.