First time posters: If you are polite, non repetitive, and genuinely interested in the topic, we’d love to hear from you, especially if you have a different view. All open minded, genuine comments and questions are welcome. (And no, you don’t need to read this page, just type something in the comment box…)
Quickstart for beginners:
- Scroll to the bottom of most pages OR Click the word “REPLY” under the comment.
- Fill in your name (or pseudonym) and leave a real email – which we won’t publish, sell, or share, but may need to reach you.
- Tell the world your thoughts. We just ask for: Politeness (please) 😉
- If you want emails of all comments on that thread to go to you, tick the box next to this at the bottom of the comment field: ” .” Be aware you may get 200 emails.
- Click “POST Comment”
If your comment disappears, email support.jonova AT proton.me, and ask for help.
Intermediate Guide
How to lose the right to post comments here:
Repeated failures of logic (ad homs, argument from authority) and a dishonest tactic of demanding answers to your questions without providing answers to ours, will get you on the moderated list sooner or later. The fastest way to lose your freedom to comment, is with ad hominem arguments.
FAQ
- I don’t like the monster face! How do I put a better image next to my comment? (See Gravatars)
- How do I report an offensive comment? Email support.jonova AT proton.me (Replace the “AT” with “@”).
AD homine…
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On this page: │ FAQ │Comment Buttons │ Code Like & Dislike buttons │ Who reads this blog? Numbered points│ Links │ Quotes │Images |
Would you say that if they were in the same room?
Think of comments as being a book club or a town hall. If you wouldn’t say that to someone’s face in a packed room – is it worth saying at all?
Like a book club, if a person is superficially polite but dominates discussion, persistently pushes their view, doesn’t read the posts, and interrupts boorishly, or goes off topic regularly, they will be uninvited. People who take up 10% of the conversation are held to higher standards than people who make one comment in one hundred. Repetition is rude. One polite line said 100 times is pollution.
1. Real names get respect. Real people post more carefully than anonymous pseudonyms (something to do with having friends, family and an employer maybe?). Anonymous comments that attack real people deserve to be razed.
2. Stay on topic at the top: Please don’t post unrelated material at #1-#10 especially. In six months, if a journalist or politician is looking for thoughts on the topic, the unrelated stuff turns people off.
3. Short comments are better and faster to approve. 200 words is good. 400,”maybe”. Longer comments have to be really good.
4. Please don’t abuse the “reply” function to hijack a subthread with unrelated material. Those comments may be deleted, and all the replies will fall into deep space.
5. Vulgar obnoxious language may get stuck in the filter forever (unless it’s incredibly entertaining or illuminating. Mostly swearing isn’t.)
6. Quotes: please quote people carefully. Please keep these quotes short. See the html code to do blockquotes.
Real names get more respect
7. Spelling. People who abuse spelling in order to get comments past the moderation filter do not impress us. Likewise secret-circle jargon like “Baxxine” and “clot shot” turns off new readers and is unscientific. We want an open forum everyone can understand. That said, joke spelling is fine if it’s funny.
8. Punctuation matters. It’s banal, but it is easier to read, which is the point, yeah?
9. No advertising: People who post links without any content at all are assumed to be advertisers, not part of a conversation. People don’t sit at the book club and say h.t.t.p.s.backslash.backslash… (but outside links are very welcome if they support a point).
10. No lists of links with no content. Anyone can google ‘a term’ and cut n paste 10 links. Please save us the time of reading a 3,000 word page to find one point.
11. Libel or Defamation: If you get attacked in an unfair way, or see something like this, please email me joanne AT Joannenova.com.au or support.jonova AT proton.me.
12. There is a helpful list of false arguments and fallacies to avoid here.
Top Commenters
- Substantiate claims. They focus on the science and not the personalities.
- Don’t argue from authority — it’s usually a waste of space. If you don’t understand why visit wikipedia.
- Have great manners. It’s top form to thank those who correct us and acknowledge our own errors…
- Use numbered points. It’s shows an organized brain. And we can refer to their points easily and follow them up. See the html code for lists.
Advanced Notes for regular commenters
How to use html
A few buttons insert the html code you can see below.
Make this word <b>bold</b>, or make this word <em>bold</em>. (Both types of tags work).
That sentence will display as “Make this word bold, or make this word bold“.
Here’s what you see in the window except the code is not red (it would be useful if it was).
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To add in a list (sorry there is no button) the code looks like this:
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To add a custom Gravatar (a picture or icon on your comments)
If you sign up here it happens automatically. You need to use the same email address that you’ve used before and all the comments from that email will appear (inc retrospectively) with your photo.
Then you can log in to the Gravatar site and change the image any time you like. But be aware any other sites you post on that have gravatars will also display the photo. The gravatar site stores them for wide use.
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The Like & Dislike Buttons (Thumbs up and Thumbs down)
These buttons at the bottom of each comment record simple clicks of “approve” or “disapprove”. Please click “like” when someone writes something that really appeals to you, especially those commentors who have done research or written a particularly inspiring comment. It highlights the most useful comments, and also gives people some indication of how many people are reading the thread.
It’s better to save the dislike button for comments that are rude, threatening, or illogical, not just for comments by people you may disagree with.
Thumbs Up Not working or greyed out for you?
It may be because the system recognises you as the author of the comment or if you have already voted.
The Thumbs up program tries to stop duplicate votes and to stop people from voting on their own comments.
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Who reads this site?
Around 12,000 people a day read the site from all over the world — that’s at least 160,000 unique visitors every month of the year. It includes Senators, MPs, Professors, journalists, heads of think tanks, medical doctors, some top ranking climate researchers, high school teachers, farmers, geologists and people who are curious about science.
For first time posters: click here.
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Privacy and Rules and Legal policies change from time to time (without warning). The old site button layout is here for posterity — should we ever manage to recover it.
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