Don’t Fuck With The Babysitter

In the three plus years I’ve maintained this site (both here and elsewhere), I’ve never felt the need to state any kind of a disclaimer or a privacy policy or a comments policy or anything like that. For the most part, my site traffic has been manageable, and the people who do choose to comment do so civilly and regularly enough that I know who they are.

But now all of a sudden I live in Bizarro World where because of one little post, my site is getting insane traffic, and I’ve found myself spending an awful lot of time babysitting the site in the last few days. And some recent comments I’ve gotten make me feel like it’s necessary to write this post.

Let’s be clear: for the most part, I’d say I’m pretty laid-back here. I don’t care if you curse. I don’t usually care if your comment has nothing whatsoever to do with the post. I care if you criticize me, but I’m not deleting a comment just because the author disagrees with me.

It annoys me when people leave critical comments and don’t have the guts to leave a valid email address. What most of you do not know is that I try to respond thoughtfully and privately to people whose comments provoke me. Sometimes I have extra insight on what I said that didn’t make the post, and leaving a valid email address gives me the opportunity to share that with you, and sometimes to have an open dialogue. So it frustrates me a lot when I can’t respond to you without making my website all about you, which I’d rather not do. But I can’t force you to leave a valid email address without making everyone register to read the site, and honestly, I don’t think that’s fair or convenient for everyone else.

I do care if you post a comment specifically to attack me or anyone else, or to call someone a filthy and degrading name. I don’t know why you don’t have any better way to spend your time than to attack people on a fucking WEBSITE, but just for the record, if that’s all you have to say, then I’m deleting your comment. For what it’s worth, if you actually have something valid to say and then lose your damn mind and also attack someone, I’ll just delete the part where you lost your damn mind.

I love getting comments and emails, even when you disagree with me. As many of you know, I’m a fundraiser, and in my line of work, we sometimes encounter people who are really, really angry about something. One of the most important lessons of my field is that you should never write off the angry people, because they care enough to be angry.

If you care enough to be upset with something I’ve written, then I want to hear it – even if I don’t like it.

If you have nothing better to do than to make pointless personal attacks on me or on other readers, then fuck off and go find somewhere else to do it.