I moderate comments for Power Line and have posted several notes to commenters including those here (2020) and here (2019). They enumerate the guidelines and considerations that I apply in deleting comments and banning commenters. I also wrote the notice to commenters in the sidebar of our site and I strictly enforce it as stated.
Our software withholds some comments for review and that is where I review them. Assuming a given comment is withheld for review, I ban commenters who employ every variation of the “F” word, including “F” itself when it stands for the word (as in “FJB,” which I have added to our moderation software, as well as in “GFY” and “LMFAO”). It’s really not complicated. If you post a comment including “FJB,” you will be banned if you haven’t been already. That’s just the way it is. I apply a black letter rule so I don’t have to think about it or weigh the merits of a vulgarity that may be deemed le mot juste by a particular commenter in the context of his comment.
Commenters who want to use their wits to evade the guidelines are encouraged to take their business elsewhere. We aren’t for you if I can help it.
Some commenters purport to find it “confusing” or “hypocritical” that the guidelines I enforce do not apply to the contributors to this site. This site exists for the primary purpose of publishing the work of its contributors for interested readers. Again, that’s just the way it is. In the interest of clarity I will leave it at that today.
Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.