Mission Statement
The purpose of this document is to establish the comment policies used by Metaphysics of Physics and which all commentators are expected to follow. This helps to ensure that comments posted on Metaphysics of Physics meet standards of courtesy, respect, meaning and relevance.
If these standards are not met, Metaphysics of Physics and its content creators, hereafter referred to as simply “Metaphysics of Physics”, reserves the right to delete comments or to restrict members from commenting.
Copyright and License
Metaphysics of Physics owns the copyright to all content posted by its staff. Any guest contributors retain the copyright to their work. We encourage you to quote, link to and attribute content from the website.
All content posted on this website are posted under the Creative Commons Attribution license unless stated otherwise.
Commenting Policies
By posting your comments to this website you grant Metaphysics of Physics the right, in perpetuity, to use, quote and/or display the comments as we see fit for commercial and non-commercial use. This includes the right to use the provided name of the commentator. If this is not to your liking, use a pseudonym.
Metaphysics of Physics will not claim authorship of any comment posted on the website or which it uses for any purpose. The provided name of the author will be used.
We do not share your personal email address or other personal information, with the following exception. Those who threaten or harass anyone will have their names, emails, and IP addresses shared with their internet service providers and, if necessary, law enforcement.
All comments are moderated and must be approved before they appear on the website. If you comment and cannot immediately see your comment, it has probably not been approved yet. We attempt to approve comments promptly, however, sometimes they may take several hours to be approved.
Comments will not be deleted once approved, unless they are later found to be in breach of the commenting policies specified here.
Not all comments will be approved. To be approved, a comment must meet the following criteria.
Relevance
It must be relevant to the context in which it is posted. It should be at least somewhat relevant to whatever post, comment or whatever it is submitted in response to. If your post is responding to another comment, your comment should be relevant to that comment. The decision as to what is relevant is up to the discretion of comment moderators.
Please note, that any comment posted in response to another comment which is itself irrelevant, will not be considered to meet the criteria of relevance.
For instance, if you wish to comment on an article on the Big Bang, your comment should be relevant to that topic of the Big Bang. A comment which talks about critics of the Big Bang theory is relevant. As is an article which discusses the sorts of consequences of such theories. However, a comment about your new car is not relevant.
As another example, suppose that there is a comment posted in response to the same Big Bang article. The comment attempts to argue for the Big Bang theory. That is relevant, even though the commentator may disagree with the authors of the article. A comment pointing out the fallacies in this argument is relevant. As is a comment pointing out the philosophical issues held by people mentioned in this comment. However, a comment about particle physics, with no apparent connection to the original article or the original comment, is not relevant.
Offensiveness
No offensive comment will be approved. It is up to the discretion of the comment moderators to determine what is offensive.
Objectionable material such as certain kinds of pornography, the depiction of scenes of graphic violence and other distasteful material will be considered objectionable at the discretion of the comment moderators.
The comment moderators reserve the right to deem any inappropriate material offensive. This includes religious and cultural beliefs and practices.
Examples of offensive content include but are not limited to bigotry, discrimination, objectionable material such as depictions of ritual torture and links to descriptions of grossly irrational behavior not relevant to the discussion at hand.
However, in certain contexts, a certain amount of discussion of topics not usually accepted may be permitted if it is relevant to the topic at hand. Again, this is up to the sole discretion of the moderators.
Courtesy
All comments will be appropriately courteous. Disagreement is expected and may be allowed to become vehement. However, we ask that you address the points being made and do not attack or insult the person making the arguments. Ad hominem attacks will not be permitted.
Do not resort to name-calling or any other offensive behavior. Treat others with courtesy and the respect that they deserve. We are not asking you to like people or to treat people with more courtesy than is justified. If you disagree with another commentator, fine. If you dislike that commentator, fine. But, do not resort to personal attacks or insult their character without just cause.
Pointing out that someone is acting irrationally is not considered an attack or ad hominem. This is not a personal attack, this is a characterization of a person’s behavior and this kind of thing is generally permitted. Note that this should not be conducted in an overly hostile or offensive tone.
Threats, blackmail, harassment, blatantly offensive and crude insults and other forms of personal abuse will not be tolerated under any circumstances. Nor will any form of deceptive conduct which harms another in any manner.
What is offensive, unjust, a personal attack or the like will be up to the discretion of the moderators.
Meaning
This one is simple, any comment without a known meaning is of no value to Metaphysics of Physics and will not be approved. No matter how clear it is to the commentator or anyone else.
If a given comment has no informative or useful content, it will not be permitted.
If your comment has not been approved and you want to clarify or explain the meaning of your comment, you are free to do so. To do this, you should email us at contact@metaphysicsofphysics.com.
You should endeavor to make truthful and honest statements. Any comment which is found to be dishonest or knowingly false is not permitted. As will any statement which knowingly mispresents the position or character of another person. Any dishonest statement which unduly damages the reputation of another is not permitted.
