Comment guidelines

I am vehemently in favor of allowing comments on blogs.  I am in favor of allowing comments on my own blogs so that they may become forums for conversation about things that matter (instead of just me shouting at the rain), and I am in favor of other people allowing comments on their blogs so I can disagree with them openly instead of just muttering angrily to myself.

However, I find I'm made uncomfortable by anonymous comments.  At best they are a not-very-exciting mystery, but at worst they give me the feeling that I'm in a dark alley trying to have a conversation with a masked person.  That's not the sort of situation I like to be in on a regular basis.

The following are comment guidelines for this blog, applied now and not effective retroactively:

1. All comments must be signed with some sort of legitimate identity.  This can be a full name, a first name only, or a handle that is consistent and is connected to a significant online presence.  This leaves room for those who don't want their names on the internets, but allows us all to feel like we're talking to real people.  Commenters are encouraged to identify themselves as completely as possible.

2. Comments may not contain offensive or hateful speech, threats, or other content you wouldn't share in church.  (A vibrant and frank church, that is.)

3. Comments not made in the spirit of these guidelines will be deleted without apology.

4. Interpretation of the above guidelines is the sole responsibility of the blog moderator (that's me) and all decisions are final.

I will continue to technically allow "anonymous" comments so people can comment without signing in to Blogger/Google/OpenID, so long as these guidelines are followed.  If I have to, I will restrict posting to people who are signed in through one of the affiliated services.

This does not represent a change to a heavy-handed moderating style; I will continue to encourage all thought and points of view on this blog, will continue allowing authors to post at will without editorial oversight, and will only delete comments I feel I cannot allow to stand.  Note that while anonymity has been an issue, hateful/offensive stuff thus far has not, so I am laying out obligatory precautions rather than reacting to something that has already happened.

Some logistical stuff

I should have thought of this a long time ago. FWFS now has a Facebook Page where you can be a fan and see updates from the site, as well as a Twitter that will (if I rigged it right) keep you up to date on new posts.

The "latest comments" widget on the right seems not to be updating; I have no idea why, but I'll smack it a couple times and see if that fixes it.

Finally, I'm begging you young people (say, 17-35ish) to join in writing this blog with me. Please contact me--nmkauffman (at) gmail (dot) com--if you want to pitch in. I'm warning you, if you don't, I'm going to build an army of seminary bloggers!

Comments

It just came to my attention that until now, you had to log in to comment. I have changed that setting, so those of you without Google or OpenID accounts can now go back and make all the comments you wanted to but couldn't.

A Goole account is still required to be added as an author.

An introduction

I should probably start this blog off by explaining exactly what this blog is going to be. And to explain what this blog is going to be, I should explain who this blog is to be about: youth and young adults in the Church of the Brethren. What I want to do is examine the relevant issues we face in the world today, from religion and morality to news and politics, all through the lens of Brethren and youth identity.

This blog does not need to be exclusively Brethren. In fact, I'd say "exclusively Brethren" is probably an oxymoron. Don't flee if you aren't a member of or don't identify with our church; there might be something for you here, as many of these themes are universal, both within our generation (I'm 21) and beyond. However, I feel the need to ground these themes in a shared identity, which for me is going to be Brethren.

I also want to put out a call for other authors. While I see the value of coherency and consistency of thought, I do want to imply that I am the voice of Brethren youth. I don't want to wind up with a forum of several dozen writers (see young.anabaptistradicals.org), but I very much want some other people who are willing to contribute to this blog (anyone is, of course, both welcome and encouraged to comment). If you like thinking about religion, politics, life and Brethrenness, and feel you can contribute thoughtful posts with some reasonable regularity (nothing crazy, just one every week or two), please contact me at nmkauffman (at) spartans (dot) manchester (dot) edu and I'll look into adding you to the authors list. Note that you'll need a gmail account and the ability to use blogspot's interface (it isn't hard :-).

One more thing: I do not want this to turn into a political forum or a hotspot for debate. Yes, controversial issues tend to be among the most relevant, and I want to address them. But this is a site for examination, not arguing. There can be a fine line, but some general guidelines (off the top of my head) could be:

For posting: Pretend you're giving a sermon. Use open and accepting language. Be affirming of the humanity and the Christ in all your readers. But also remember that you don't have to write some big long thing: anything we can share in is good (e.g. - famous quotes from Walt Wiltschek ;-).

For commenting: See above. Be respectful of the thought and searching that went into the post. Try to ask questions rather than provide "answers." Look for common ground. Be challenging, but only in a way as to open up more ideas and thoughts, rather than in a way that discourages or closes them off.

I'm sitting on a few articles that I'll try to throw up sometime in the next couple of days. In the meantime, if you happen to stumble upon this site and want to do some writing, let me know.

-Nick Miller Kauffman