Election Day and a Few Words About Comments

I don't normally discuss politics on this blog, and I don't plan to specifically today.  I just wanted to remind everyone to take advantage of the wonderful opportunity we have in this country to vote for our government leaders.  A presidential election is always very important because it heavily affects the following 4 years.

So be sure to go out there today and cast your vote. :)

I do NOT want this post to become a huge political war, so any comments endorsing or speaking against a particular candidate will not be published.  And of course, any derogatory or insulting comments of any kind will not be published either.

Along that same line, I've wanted to explain a few things about my comments and how I decide to publish them.

My goal for this blog has always been to make it a place where doll lovers can come together and enjoy dolls, no matter what their beliefs or backgrounds.  I am upfront about the fact that I am a Christian and write things from a Christian perspective.  However, I generally try to avoid topics that may cause discord or heated debate among my readers.

Thankfully, I've been blessed in that I rarely have a comment that is inappropriate or insulting.  That is a rare gift in the blogging world, and I do not take it for granted.

However, recently I've had a few comments that I've had to keep unpublished for various reasons.  I'd like to share a few of those reasons now.

1.  If your comment has any foul, crude, or offensive language, I will not publish it.  I'm a real stickler on this.  This includes a few words that many would consider okay.  For example, if your comment includes the "c" word that rhymes with snap, it's not getting published.  While this isn't the most horrendous word out there, and a lot of people use it, I don't want it on my blog.  There has been at least one instance where the rest of the comment was fine, but because of one crude word, I couldn't publish it.

2.  If your comment is accusatory or written in a tone that is just looking for an argument, I will most likely not publish it.  There are ways to express yourself without using this tactic.

3.  If your comment discusses a religious or political topic that may alienate some of my readers or start a huge debate in the comments, I will not publish it.  As I said before, my goal is to make this blog a place where all doll lovers will feel welcome.  I do have specific religious and political convictions, but I don't feel that this blog is the appropriate place to share them.      

Of course, I would love to discuss any sort of question or issue you may have regarding my faith or my personal beliefs.  I would just prefer to have that discussion via email rather than this blog.  You can reach me anytime at nevergrowup.beastsbelle@gmail.com.

You may, perhaps, think I'm being wishy-washy or that I lack the courage to stand up for my beliefs.  I'll be the first to admit that I absolutely hate confrontation or strife of any kind.  But the key issue here is appropriateness.  If this was a blog about world issues or a blog primarily about my beliefs, then I would have no problem encouraging comments that revolved around those topics.  However, this is first and foremost a doll blog.  Some Disney stuff, some movie reviews, a few articles about relationships...but mainly it's about DOLLS.  And yes, my Christian worldview will affect everything I do to some extent.  I will not apologize for mentioning God or evaluating how the message of a film I review lines up with my Biblical values.  I'd just rather avoid religious topics that are going to make readers feel unwelcome or that will encourage arguments between my readers.  Things like that can get ugly fast, especially online when we can all hide behind our anonymous names and not think about the damage we can do with a few clicks of a keyboard.

4.  If your comment has the link to a blog or site that I can't fully read until I publish the comment, I will not publish it.  I don't know how many of you have noticed this, but ever since Blogger switched over to its new look, I've been unable to fully view my comments before publishing.  (If any of you have figured out a way around this, please share it with me!)

I have a responsibility to my readers which includes only having links on this blog that lead to sites I'm comfortable promoting.  So if I can't fully view your site (or if the site name contains profane language...I'm pretty sure that one was a spam comment!), I don't feel comfortable publishing it for all to see.  I have to be especially careful with this now that I've taken word verification off...I've been suddenly bombarded with a ton of spammy comments with a list of random words and a website URL.

So, if you're interested in putting a link to your blog or website, either put it in the comment early enough that I can see it fully before I publish it, or email the link to me so I can check it out beforehand.

5.  I've had a couple of comments with such bad spelling or grammar that I honestly haven't been able to understand what they were saying.  I realize I have readers from all over the world, so I apologize if this sounds snooty or something.  However, if I can't understand your comment, I don't feel comfortable publishing it.  Again, I've gotten some spam comments like this, so I'd rather err on the side of caution in this area.

I'm sure there are other reasons for not publishing comments, but those are the ones I can think of specifically that have come up in the past year or so.  Thanks for bearing with me through this rather long and uninteresting post. :}  Hopefully, this has given you an idea of where I'm coming from and how I decide whether or not to publish the comments I receive.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns with anything I've mentioned, please feel free to contact me via email:  nevergrowup.beastsbelle@gmail.com. :)