Comment Policy

The Geek Feminism blog is a feminist space. We welcome discussion that encourages and supports women in geek communities.

The basic rules

  1. To quote Hoyden About Town: Be at least one of: feminist, friendly, amusing, or perspicacious. Two is even better!
  2. Anonymous comments are not permitted. Pseudonymous ones are fine.
  3. The moderators’ decision is final.

This is a feminist space

If you join the discussion here, we assume you are either a feminist, or want to learn more about feminism. If you are new, we recommend that you read some background material. A good starting point is the Geek Feminism Wiki, especially Resources for men.

Our blog has the following values, which guide our comment policy:

  • feminist
  • inclusive (in opposition to geek gatekeeping, we believe anyone who wants to participate in geek communities, and can follow basic behavior standards, belongs.)
  • intersectional: “[Our] feminism will be intersectional, or it will be bullshit” — Flavia Dzodan.

Unacceptable comments

Comments that are anti-feminist, abusive, creepy, derogatory, or which add nothing to the conversation — including those that actively distract from, detract from or derail geek feminist discussions — will be deleted on sight.

Our feminist and intersectional values mean that the following positions and arguments (non-exhaustive list) are also not welcome in our comments:

  • arguments that disability issues, race issues, trans issues, queer issues, and age issues are not feminist issues or relevant to geek feminism
  • trans-eliminationist (or trans-exclusionary or trans-exterminationist) radical feminist TERF viewpoints
  • health or body policing, such as fat-shaming, fatphobia, sizeism and healthism

When commenting, you may assume that your readers are also feminists or open to learning more about feminism, but not that your readers share the same race, gender, other political views, national background, disability status, religious views, dietary preferences, or any other trait orthogonal to feminism that you do.

Feminism 101 discussions

We don’t have a lot of energy to devote to 101-level discussions. The following questions, to name just a few, are 101-level FAQs and answers to them can be easily found in the resources linked above:

Note that repeated 101-level comments add nothing to the conversation, and if they are continued after we’ve given you an opportunity to read the FAQs, they will be deleted.

Anonymity and pseudonymity

We don’t allow anonymous comments here. You must use a name of some sort (a pseudonym is fine), and provide a real email address (visible only to the moderators). We ask that you use the same name and email address each time you comment, to build continuity and reputation.

Sensitive comments

If you are commenting on a particularly sensitive matter, such as discussing something that could harm you if linked with your usual pseudonym or other names, we ask that you:

  • choose a new once-off pseudonym (however, something more individual than variants on “Anon” or “Anonymous”, so that people can still refer to your comments uniquely) for the thread
  • note in your comment that you’ve switched pseudonyms (eg “not using my usual pseudonym for privacy reasons”)
  • important: if your usual email address is linked with a custom Gravatar, do not use that email or the Gravatar may identify you. Add a “+anonymous” or similar to your email, eg if your email is “[email protected]”, enter “[email protected]”

Self-promotion

We have periodic classifieds posts that allow promotion of events, products and opportunities with geek feminist interest. Otherwise, you are more than welcome to link to your own site in the URL section of your comment, and to post links to relevant stuff on your site (eg I wrote a blog on this topic once…)

Off-topic promotion of your own sites or projects in the body of your comment is frowned on. Your personal or business site gets linked in the URL field only. Comments that contain off-topic self-promotion or commercial promotion may be ruthlessly edited or deleted entirely.

Time limits

We’ve set up the blog to automatically turn off comments on any post older than 60 days. If you wish to discuss an older post, please post to your own blog; you are welcome to submit your entry to our regular linkspams.

Slurs

We will edit or delete comments that include racist, sexist, transphobic, ableist, classist, or any other slurs (that is, pejorative terms that demean a whole class of people). Please avoid using them. Disabled Feminists have a great guide to avoiding ableist slurs.

Trigger warnings

If, in your comment, you link to any page that contains discussion of sexual assault, violence against women, or any other subject that may distress readers or cause them to be triggered, you must add a trigger warning alongside the link. If you don’t, we may edit the comment to add one for you.

Our blog, our rules

How we handle comments on the Geek Feminism blog is entirely up to us. We will do what we need to to keep the discussions reasonable and on-topic, at our sole judgement and discretion.

We will edit comments that contain content that is derogatory towards an entire class of people based on their race, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability, class, religion, age, or other self-identified or imputed identity. By commenting on the blog, you consent to having your comment edited as much as we see fit.

Harassment and abuse

Harassment and abuse by any participants in a Geek Feminism forum are prohibited by our Code of Conduct and can be reported to our anti-abuse team.