Basic information about blog posts and comments policy

The blog section of Open Borders features many different authors who are generally supportive of open borders. Below are some important facts about Open Borders blog posts.

  • Blog posts have URLs that read openborders.info/blog/pagename. Other site content pages will not have the “blog/” in their URL.
  • Every blog post has its individual author noted at the top of the post. All blog posts by a given author can be viewed by clicking on the appropriate link at the top. You can access the current list of regular authors at the authors page. Additionally, there are guest blog posts by people who are not regular authors.
  • The copyright for each blog post is retained by its individual author. However, unless otherwise noted (see the footer for the page with the blog post for exceptions) the blog post is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (CC-BY). For more information, see the copyright page.
  • Every blog post has a publication date mentioned at the top of the post. Blog posts are generally not edited after the stated publication date, except for explicitly identified updates and minor spelling/grammar/broken link fixes. In the case of explicitly identified updates made more than two days after the publication of the post, or after comments have already been made whose interpretation is affected by the changes made to the post, the date of the update is also noted.
  • The moral and intellectual responsibility for each blog post also lies with the individual author. Other bloggers are not responsible for the views expressed by any author in any individual blog post, and the views of bloggers expressed in individual blog posts should not be construed as views of the site per se. That said, unless otherwise noted, bloggers on this site are in general agreement with the broad thrust of the site. There may occasionally be guest bloggers who have significant philosophical disagreements with the site content.
  • Any blog post that is found to be libelous, infringe on copyrights, violate individual privacy, or threaten the physical safety of persons will be removed or edited accordingly if the matter is brought to our notice. Please use the error report page to report any issues with any blog posts.
  • An author may take down a post at his/her own discretion after publishing it, but the post will be retained privately and any commenters who have contributed comments to the post will be sent a copy of the post and the comments on the post if they so desire.

Below are important facts about comments policy:

  • Comments are open on all blog posts (with the exception of the welcome post, which serves as an introduction to the site) at all times after the publication of the post, with exceptions explicitly noted and justified. As of the time of writing this (December 27, 2012), there have been no exceptions other than the welcome post.
  • Commenters are encouraged to be civil, but there are no specific civility guidelines. Rudeness or name-calling in the comments is not generally considered grounds for comment deletion. However, comments may be deleted for being spam, completely unrelated to the topic either of the post or the website as a whole, or being libelous, infringing on copyrights, violating individual privacy, and/or threatening the physical safety of persons. For instance, a comment that posts private information such as home addresses of people without their consent may be deleted. As a general rule, if the comment has a substantive component and some problematic components, only the problematic components are deleted. For instance, if a comment contains a link to a PDF of a book wherein the copyright permissions for putting up the book as a PDF are unclear, the PDF link may be removed, while the rest of the comment will generally be kept intact. In the case of comments that make extremely rude personal attacks on individuals other than Open Borders bloggers with no redeeming substantive component, the comments will be deleted unless the person being attacked is okay with the comment staying public. In the case of comments that have at least some substantive component, the commenter will be notified by email if the comment is edited to remove problematic components.
  • Commenters are strongly encouraged to fill in a valid email address that they check regularly so that any disputes related to comments can be resolved speedily. Commenters who do not enter valid email addresses may find that they are not contacted when their comments, or posts featuring their comments, are removed. Commenter email addresses are accessible to Open Borders bloggers but are not shared with third parties without the commenter’s consent.