(UPDATED 2011-01-27, 2011-05-28, 2015-08-10, 2015-09-14, 2022-12-09, 2023-05-02)
Rant Roulette is a blog where I (Shawn K. Quinn) post my take on current events and news, with an occasional technology and sports slant.
Due to lack of legitimate use of the comment function, the comments function as built into WordPress has been disabled for all past and future posts. Trackbacks are still accepted but due to frequent abuse/botnet attacks on WordPress’s XML-RPC (which trackbacks rely on), they can be somewhat unreliable.
I welcome comments submitted via the contact form, submitted with a valid e-mail address, as well as legitimate trackbacks and pingbacks from posts made on readers’ blogs. As long as they don’t break other rules, I’ll accept, and sometimes even reply to, comments which completely disagree with my point of view. The following is considered unacceptable:
- Excessively profane, obscene, or vulgar comments
- Off-topic content or links
- Lack of a valid e-mail address, including the presence of an obviously invalid e-mail address (in addition to helping weed out questionable comments, I occasionally have questions on comments that need to be answered prior to approval. I do not share e-mail addresses.)
- Extremely poor grammar or spelling
- Flaming, or baiting others to flame
- Using a language other than English, or a trackbacks/pingback to a blog or website not written in English (exception: if I can obtain a satisfactory translation, I may allow trackbacks/pingbacks to non-English blogs/websites, at my discretion)
- Trackbacks, pingbacks, or links to blogs or websites I deem likely to be fradulent or spam
- Attempting to serve legal notice or demand via a comment, trackback, or pingback
- Comments I believe to mostly contain lies or deceptive statements
- Comments which are unlawful or which encourage a violation of civil or criminal law (such as attempts to libel others or encourage infringement of copyright)
- Comments, trackbacks, or pingbacks I feel it is in my best interests not to publish on my blog for other reasons not listed above
Rejected comments may, at my option, be sent back via e-mail. In the case of a missing or invalid e-mail address, or a flagrant violation of the rules, the comment will be deleted or may be sent back via any other means of contact available.
Multiple rejected comments or a flagrant violation of these guidelines may result in a temporary or indefinite ban from further commenting on this or any other blogs I administer in the future.
In plain English:
I try to be reasonable about the comments I allow here, but I will not necessarily approve all comments submitted for publication and there are some things I simply cannot allow. Accepting comments submitted with valid e-mail addresses helps ensure the comments come from real people. I do not share e-mail addresses with anyone and I do not use the e-mail address for anything besides validation or questions I need to ask prior to comment approval.
— Shawn K. Quinn
Ranter-in-chief, Rant Roulette
Revised 2023 May 02