O for a world of civility which would obviate the need for contribution guidelines. A blog for a stage, philosophers to react and Me to behold the burgeoning site.
Life being less poetic, guidelines are necessary and the following applies to all areas of this site which support contribution.
The Philosophy of Contributing
In a world of armchair generals, it is easy to comment on everything. It requires little engagement or understanding of the content. What ensues is often a waste of everyone’s time.
In extremis, commenting can descend into flame wars with respondents biting back against others biting back. Each response is analysed for transgression as each side scours the landscape for weakness. It is a new Cold War but, being social media, temperatures run high leaving a very hot environment — no thank you!
Instead, I hope to shift the emphasis from commenting to contributing. In doing so, I am seeking to create a space for a meaningful conversation about the life of the mind.
My purpose in creating a space for contributions on robert.winter.ink is to provide the opportunity for me to learn from you. To hear your experiences and become a better writer and contributor to the world of letters for your thinking.
In that context, the first rule of contributing is: be civil and be informed.
Benign Dictatorship
For those seeking a space for unrestricted free speech, this is not that place. As such, contributions are held for moderation.
No Spam
While I encourage people to write long form responses to articles, post them on their own site and link back to here. That does not mean I invite shameless self-promotion. Which includes, but is not limited to, links to:
- Shopping websites
- Websites which have no relevance for the topic in question
- Websites which are pornographic in nature
- Websites which support bigoted or intolerant views
Offensive Contributions
The notion of offence is moral, not ethical. In that what offends is highly correlated to the society in which you live. One person’s praise is another person’s hatred.
In this social construct context, my own views on offence are constantly evolving. If you see a contribution which you think is offensive, please contact me and I will be happy to review.
Quality Contributions
In the spirit of a benign dictatorship, my determination of quality contributions is both objective and subjective. No offence is intended, but as offence is a social construct, taking it is at your discretion.
If you run a website, a responding article by way of contribution would be most appreciated. There is a ‘ping me!’ section under the regular contributions section. Simply enter the URL of your article and ‘ping me!’ Your contribution will then appear under my article, after moderation.
If you don’t have an online writing presence but would like one, WriteAs is an excellent entry point to the world of online writing.
Contribution Privacy
Privacy matters, and I go to great lengths to ensure this site respects your data privacy. If you want your contributions removing from the system, please contact me and I will have them deleted. If you linked to this site from yours, and want this removing, update or delete your post and re-enter your post’s URL again (Learn More).