A recent set of threads on Fictionmania has led me to think I need to clarify my policy on comments here.

Authors own their stories and therefore have a right to control which comments appear attached to their stories. If an author objects to a comment on one of their own stories, I will remove that comment, though I may choose to discuss it with the author and commenter before permanent removal. While discussing the fate of such a comment, I will unpublish it so only those with admin priveleges can see the comment. I've done this about ten times.

I own the website and therefore have a right to control which stories and comments appear on my website and the form in which they appear. I also reserve the right to edit stories for grammar and other elements of style but not for content. I have only refused display to three stories in the six year history of BC, as far as I recall. One was plagiarism, one was not a story but a confused and poorly typed fantasy fetish scene and one violated my TOS with the owner of my server by having a detailed and prurient account of a child rape.

Similarly, I reserve the right to edit comments for grammar and style, though I seldom do unless it is an egregious typo in the header of the comment, thus appearing on my front page. Commenters are free to ask me to restore or delete if they think I have changed their meaning or otherwise overstepped my bounds.

I also reserve the right to partially redact a comment that I feel is valuable but contains a sentence or two that oversteps the bounds of politeness and consideration that I wish to maintain. I redact whole sentences when I do this and I leave a interposed note -- {{Comment edited - Erin}} -- like that, and I notify the commenter so they can object or clarify their comment. I've done this about six times. If the commenter objects to the deletion and we can't agree on a clarification, the comment can be removed or perhaps moved to forum instead of being attached to an author's story.

Things I don't allow anywhere:
-- Name calling of contributors.
-- Lurid descriptions of incestuous rape, child molestation or bestiality.

Things I don't allow in comments, blogs or forums:
-- Bigotry.
-- Harrassment.
-- Name calling of public figures. (Permitted in a blog, but I may unlink the blog from the front page.)
-- Pointed comments that can too easily be misunderstood as one of the above.

All of these involve judgement calls by me. Fair enough, I'm in charge here. Note, I don't read every story or every comment and sometimes I may miss minor violations even if I do read something. I'll look at anything brought to my attention but that doesn't mean I'm always going to do something except in the case of authors who want control of the presentation of their stories and commenters who want their comments removed.

Anyone who posts a blog or forum, doesn't have the right to ask me to remove a comment just because they object to it. I may, but I may not, also.

I don't want flamewars here. I want people to read and write and comment on TG fiction and feel safe and comfortable doing so.

I can clarify anything that seems vague if anyone wants to comment on this. :)

- Erin