What follows below is an important reminder about the WasWatching.com Community Standards.

Back in April of this year, I received the following e-mail from a long-time reader of this blog:

Hi Steve,

I just wanted to give my take on the comments in general. While I sympathize with you for being constantly under attack, it’s part of the nature of having a successful blog and I’m fairly confident that nobody is really going to crush your fragile ego. The problem I see is not that the attacks drive people away from reading your blog (or probably even reading the comments, just to view the train wreck if nothing else). Rather, I think it discourages people who actually have something intelligent to say from posting their comments. When WW first started, I enjoyed the ensuing debate as much as the original posts. Go back and look at the early entries and compare them to today’s. There used to be discussions. Now there’s just a perpetual flame war. And look at the posters then and now. How many rational commenters have you lost to a small group who just rant about the same things 5 times a day? I don’t really have a viable solution, but I wanted to clarify anyway.

In response to this reader, I suggested that they should not be shy, keep posting, and try to ignore flames. They agreed – and wrote back to me saying that they would try it, hoping “If enough people join in, maybe they can drown out the flames?”

Related, at that time, I also published the WasWatching.com Community Standards.

Moving forward, today, I received an e-mail from a different long-time WasWatching.com reader. It reads as follows:

Hey, Steve. I just wanted to drop you an e-mail to let you know that I still read WasWatching every day. However, I stopped commenting on your blog a while back due to the constant hostility of some of your readers. It seems that, while blogs like yours offer fans a place to vent, cheer, and learn, some people just cannot let go of their juvenile taunts and name-calling.

Life’s just too short to be that angry and hostile, so I try my best to remove myself from the bile by just reading your posts and skipping the comments.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that you’re doing an excellent job – regardless of whether or not I agree with all of your views (count me in as a Cashman apologist). Take care, man. I’ll keep reading if you keep writing.

This feedback, while appreciated, is distressing. This is now two different people over the last two months sending the same message. Hence, this reminder from me:

WasWatching.com is dedicated to developing and maintaining a friendly online community where members feel relaxed and comfortable. Like any community, WasWatching.com has certain standards. Registered members who leave comments at WasWatching.com must agree to abide by these rules. Being a member of this community requires a considerate and respectful attitude toward fellow members. Repeated violations of these standards may result in a member being barred from leaving comments at WasWatching.com.

Disagreement, debate, and strong opinions are encouraged. Certain topics evoke strong passions, and WasWatching.com aims to provide a safe place for the free expression of those passions and differing views. Members must provide respect to other values, opinions, and ideas even if they strongly disagree with those ideas.

WasWatching.com registered members are not permitted to harass, bash or “flame” other members. Members must note that this also includes the posting of taunts to an entry solely for the purpose of deriding that entry’s topic and/or comments made to it other registered members.

Bottom line, if you can’t play nice in the sandbox, you’re not going to be allowed to play in the sandbox, here, any longer. Thanks to all for their attention on this reminder.