Always consider the possibility that your comment ended up in the spaminator, which as long as your comment was neither obnoxious or tedious, is almost certainly the reason that it has not appeared. Otherwise your comment may have been moderated and deleted because it in some way contravenes the Comments Policy, which is linked to in the banner-area, in the sidebar (immediately above the link to this page, in fact) and many other places all over this blog.
The most probable way that it breached our policy is by being in some way obnoxious. Of course, there are overtly obnoxious comments, covertly obnoxious comments that you didn’t think we’d catch but we did, or perhaps merely oblivious obnoxiousness, such as having very obviously not read the Comments Policy and posting something strictly discouraged in discussions on this site. If you haven’t read it, what makes you such a special snowflake that you don’t need to read Comments Policies on interactive websites before making a comment?
On to the more deliberate forms of obnoxious commenting:
- Dissenting views are welcome here up to a point, that point being that the comments are substantive in content, civil in tone and submitted to an on-topic thread. Dissenting views submitted to an off-topic thread will be deleted. If dissenters can’t be bothered to show sufficient respect for the others here to find the appropriate thread for their dissenting comment, then it’s obvious that they won’t be civil and substantive in any actual discussion.
- Even if you are a feminist commentor arguing against a dissenter, or a dissenter who is arguing civilly and substantively, you may inadvertently have tripped over a guideline intended to ensure an orderly discussion-space.
Read the guidelines, see where you went wrong, redraft your comment to remove the impediment and then resubmit your comment. If you can’t see how your comment contravenes the guidelines, then use the contact form to send the moderator a query, and all will be revealed to you. But before you ask, yes I am indeed serious about the 3-comment rule, the too-frequent rule and the too-long rule. Also, don’t be tedious.
Another possibility is that you’ve submitted a comment to the Open Suggestions or Ask A Question Threads on a topic that that has already been addressed by an FAQ. Why have you done that? Not reading the FAQs before asking a question on an FAQ site seems, well, rather odd, and not a little discourteous.
Go and read the FAQs, and resubmit your comment on the appropriate FAQ instead if you find that the FAQ and its discussion thread haven’t already addressed your points.
Finally
- I will not post links to nakedly partisan political promotions. Feminist/womanist gatherings for political activism with a partisan tinge are one thing, stump speeches and attack ads on YouTube are another entirely.
- Neither will I post your oh-so-hilarious rape joke on the Rape Jokes Aren’t Funny thread – it’s not there as a challenge. Any person submitting a rape joke will immediately have their ID details entered into the killfile, and will never have another comment appear here again (and yes, I do share my killfile list with any other feminist blogger who asks for it).
Last updated 02 August 2008
Finally, A Feminism 101 Blog 