House Rules

If I remember rightly, when I first launched this blog all manner of comments were accepted, including anonymous ones. After a while, when it became clear that Anonymous comments tended to be abusive or did not attempt to develop or discuss ideas in a balanced way, I switched off that option and now I rely on someone to have a Google account.

My view now is that I'm going to go a step further. I want this blog to be about having a political conversation, with other Greens, with others who have different political views and for people to have a conversation with me. One of the key aspects of having a conversation is knowing who you are talking to, so that is a new house rule in regards to the Comments.

There (has been) a time and a place for anonymity / avatars on blogs, but the way in which I want to have a conversation now is to do it on the record, with other people willing to do the same. If you want to be anonymous, or you post under a Google identity that says nothing other than the date it was created (often simultaneous to the comment...) then I'm highly unlikely to publish your part of the conversation.

For those that want to have open and frank discussions, there are message boards where you can either choose to be yourself or not. In the past, I've been an occasional anonymous contributor (although it didn't take too much detective work to know who I was), but it is not something I'd do now. My blog is something that is on the record, and I think that is how I'd like to conduct my online discussion.

There is an exception to this general rule I'd like to make clear. You might want to be anonymous to everyone else, but you can choose to email me alongside your comment at petercranie@greenparty.org.uk to introduce yourself. I'll then be more than happy to have that conversation with you, but will respect your right to remain anonymous to others.

As always, feedback on this gratefully received. I hope everyone has enjoyed some family time during this holiday season. I've got six days before I'm back at work and I intend to spend most of that with my family. Happy Hogmanay all!