Comments Policy

Hello Reader! We want to hear from you!

Hey Ridge is not a one-way street where we just talk at you and expect you to demonstrate fealty to our obvious wisdom. We encourage your engagement with us and other readers through the comments section, both here on heyridge.com and on our Facebook page. Let us know what you think. Don’t feel like we’re just looking for positive reinforcement. If you have a different opinion, let us know. If you think we’re really wrong about something, say so!

It is a moderated engagement, though, so there are certain guidelines for everyone to follow.

We encourage lively debate, not survival of the most obnoxious.

Think of the comments section like a bar for nerdy academics, the kind with comfy chairs and a bunch of books and probably a couple of college pennants hung up on the wall. If you disagree with us or other commenters, that’s obviously OK, but treat them like friends you disagree with. We encourage a reasonable dose of snark and sarcasm. (Seriously – who are we to tell anyone else not to be snarky and sarcastic?) But don’t be mean-spirited. Definitely don’t be condescending towards other commenters. If you’re just hangin’ around to shout down or slander others, we will have to ask you to leave the establishment by removing your comments and potentially blocking you from posting new comments.

Don’t be overtly racist or hateful.

We have a broad amount of tolerance for implicit bias, since psychology teaches us that everyone has at least a little bit. However, overtly demonstrating your disdain for those that don’t have the same skin tone as you, the same cheekbone structure, or the same version of Abrahamic religious beliefs as you will probably get your comment removed. Remember, this is a forum primarily for showing your disdain for people who don’t think the same way you do (subject to the guideline above).

Don’t make physical threats against people or property, obviously.

Do you want to punch Eric Lindros in the face? Then get yourself on a professional hockey team where that sort of thing is accepted. Using our comments to make threats against anyone else (or their stuff) won’t just get the comment removed, it will get the commenter reported to law enforcement authorities.

Pseudonyms are fine with us. Sock-puppetry is not.

On heyridge.com, we don’t require you to use a real name when commenting. The United States has a long tradition, dating back to its Colonial era, of individuals using pseudonyms to freely express ideas that might cause them trouble with their monarchs, governments, employers, or stalker ex-boyfriends if their true identities were exposed. We don’t expect anyone here to be the next Poor Richard, but we value your right to express ideas without having to state your name, rank, and intention.

What we don’t want to see is that occasional person who will abuse that right in order to have a conversation with themselves using different pseudonyms. You’ll just have to wait for a real straw-man to appear in the comments, you can’t invent your own, sorrynotsorry.

It’s a little trickier on Facebook, since Facebook itself has a more stringent real-name policy (though somewhat hypocritically and contrary to its own name, not a real-face policy). As far as we’re concerned, that’s Facebook’s problem to enforce, not ours.

Your privacy matters to us.

Readers that comment on heyridge.com submit their e-mail address. This, along with the IP address that the comment was made from, is stored pretty much forever, because… we legitimately don’t know the answer to that. It’s just how web publishing software with commenting functions is written, and it apparently never occurred to the WordPress team that there’s a whole bundle of individual privacy issues that come attached to that.

So with that in mind, we have a responsibility to take reasonable steps to protect your private information. Unless you are doing something illegal (like making threats – see above) that would require us to report you to the authorities or network security professionals, we will never disclose your e-mail or IP to anyone. We certainly won’t use that information to publicly shame or expose you, because that’s just really messed up.

As before, privacy on the Facebook page is for Facebook itself to enforce.

And that’s about it.

Have fun! Or have at it! Or both, if they’re one-in-the-same to you.