Nerd & Tie Community and Comments Policy

So while we wish we could just trust everyone to behave, it’s become clear that we need to post the rules that posters in our comment section need to follow. If you stick with these, your comments and posts will remain up. While we believe in freedom of speech, we also are not obligated to provide you with a vehicle to express it. There are plenty of other options for you on the internet.

No Use of Multiple Aliases/Accounts

Anyone using multiple names or pretending to be more than one person will find themselves fairly quickly banned. Also, if you have been banned, and you try to come back under a different name (or send a proxy to specifically post on your behalf), that account will be banned too. Banned is banned, no getting around it.

Certain Comments Will Not Be Tolerated

If your comment contains the following, you may find it removed and/or your account banned from commenting:

• Use of hate speech against any race, religion, gender or sexual orientation
• Spam or attempts at commercial sales
• Libelous or otherwise defamatory statements
• Harassment of other people
• Defense of any of the above activities
• Posting of explicit pornographic images or videos

This list is not exhaustive, and we reserve the right to expand it at any time.

You Must Be Here For the Community

Sometimes we post about hot button issues, and this can attract readers from outside the con and geek communities. That’s fine, and as long as we think you’re here in good faith, we’ll likely allow your comments to remain.

What these articles also attract are hit and run commenters, who search the web and exclusively post about specific, hot button issues. We do not allow posts from these sorts of users, as we do not feel they accurately represent the community we are trying to serve. This website is not your soapbox.

Read the Article You’re Commenting On

I mean, if something is clearly stated in the text above, don’t pretend like you don’t have that information. If you haven’t read the article, consider keeping quiet until you have.

Back Up What You Say

If you say something, make sure you can provide evidence to back it up. If you’re going to say something in one of our articles is wrong, you need to provide sources — because we already did.

Be Polite.

Do your best to follow Wheaton’s law. If you’re unfamiliar, it’s “Don’t Be a Dick.” Direct insults can get you banned immediately.

We Don’t Owe You a Platform

Just like you can kick someone out of your house if they insult your friend in your living room, we have no problem booting you if you can’t behave. You may have freedom of speech, but so do we — and we are under no obligation to host yours. I’m sure you can find some subreddit to whine in, or maybe you could start your own website to compain about us being “so unfair.”

You wouldn’t be the first.

Effectively, when you join our comment system, you’re coming into our house. We expect you to be polite to us, our friends, the other commenters, and not be a dick. We are under no obligation to sit here debating you on our platform — so yeah, if you show up just to tell us off, you’re not staying. If that’s not too much for you, we can be a pretty great group of (nongender specific) dudes.

This List is Incomplete

Just because something isn’t explicitly listed on here doesn’t mean it’s necessarily permissible.