Once in every few months, I come up with this ‘fair comment’ plea. Whenever I see the temperature of the comments section going up, I become the culture vulture and seek your support to make this a better place. And now, here I am, impatient and inconsiderate. Once again tired of unspamming, moderating and editing comments, but ready to take on more moderating workload in order to bring in a ‘change of style’.

You’ll read below the new version of the commenting policy and rules. The cornerstone of this policy is this statement:

“I believe that everyone has a right to their opinion but I also believe that not every opinion is appropriate for this blog”.

The commenting policy is based on my personal beliefs and the blog content. This is not a newspaper, this is a personal blog. Even newspapers edit stuff and reserve their right of not publishing if they don’t want to.

Some people don’t quite understand the concept of blogs yet. See this is like an online diary where I write my opinions and views. I’m a regular person who can think for himself. I don’t have to be essentially correct. I can be wrong. I will be wrong. I may not accept my mistakes. I’m just like anyone. I’m not expected to be the spokesperson for the club. I cannot be expected to rally the fans around. I cannot be expected to hold fans together by instilling faith and confidence in them. I can do all this but I cannot be expected to. Being as hypocritical as anyone is, I hereby lay down the commenting rules, regulations and policies.

Some comments/commenters are of these kind – Trolls. Flamers. Meanies. Vicious. Not Nice. Unkind. Rude. Inconsiderate. Nasty. Whining. Bitching. Moaning. Bastards. These are under microscope. They must be wary of deletion and moderation. Some comments are certainly worthy of deletion based on the below guidelines. If a comment is worthy of deletion, all future comments of the commenter are put under moderation which will be released at my convenience, which is may be, after 2 years.

1. Bigoted comments: Some people are so obsessive that they keep repeating the same thing over and over. If you don’t respond to them, they get wild and start saying even worse things. And if you respond, you’re in a big trap of never ending pointless argument which will result in too much of mudslinging. Such comments and commenters are out.

2. Comments that are just mean to inflame: Some comments are only meant to provoke people. They are not just their opinions. Thye just want to irritate, annoy and provoke people. If you are annoyed, they get their energy to write more. Just like the monsters in Monster Inc. get their energy from the screams of children. Inflaming comments should be gone.

3. Comments that are badly off-topic and spiteful: Some commenters have only one thing to say. Irrespective of what you’re discussing they would say the same thing over and over again. Before anyone could realise the everyone could be in that unnecessarily off-topic war of words. These broken records should stop.

4. Mannerless/impolite comments: Comments that are mannerless to anyone will be gone. For instance, calling Grant a ‘toad’ will get your comments deleted and you might have to go through the slow and painful (sometimes 2 years) moderation process. No name calling. Learn to use logic and information in discussions than abuse or insults. Commenters showing less respect will be off.

5. Comments with no proper names or nicks: Yes, have a good, decent name. If you don’t have one by now, name yourself before you post again. ‘Mourinho=longball’ and ‘Grant=noballs’ do not qualify. No hidden messages or insults in the nick name. Anonymous comments are absolutely unwelcome.

6. Comments with links: This is meant to be an anti-spam measure. If you’re comments have links, they will invariably end up in the moderation queue. Once I’m done verifying it, the comment should be out.

I know what you’re thinking. If the comments of above nature are removed/prevented, this would be a great place to have discussions and make friends, right? That’s my feeling too. And some more elaboration on the ground rules to determine the bad comments.

1. There is NO democracy in this blog: Yup. No democracy. Some commenters might have no problem at all and get all ther comments published and some always have the hard luck with the moderation and such stuff. That’s the way it is. No democracy. Some get off and some get laid. No equality as such.

2. There is NO such thing called freedom of speech either: Or there is as much freedom of speech as you can find on the street. You might think that the girl walking down the road looks like a pig but you won’t go tell her right? It’s like that. You can’t be saying every damn thing that you want to say. Control your temper.

3. The comment moderation standards change with my moodswings: Well, I don’t really mean this. All I say is, the standards do change and I’d keep moving the goal posts. What is nasty and what is not, of course changes from time to time and also based on several parameters.

4. I have no sense of justice: As in, I think like a very regular human being. I have my own beliefs, preferences and choices. I have my own likes and dislikes. When I carry out things based on what I think is right, I might seem like someone that does not have a sense of justice. That’s ok. I’m not a saint and I don’t want to be one.

5. I’m the final decision maker: You knew this already. I happen to be the owner and writer of this blog. So that gives me the little right about what I want to do here. And I can be such a hypocrite that I won’t even bother giving reasons. I’m tired of writing those long emails to people who get annoyed of getting banned or moderated. Why should I care?

So if you thought these rules are some new gimmicks by me to suppress those comments that I don’t want to see in the blog, may be you’re right. You’ll see the truth as we go along. If all the above rules, policies and autocracies result in just 10 comments per article, so be it. I don’t earn X dollars per comment. In fact, I don’t earn anything out of the blog now.

All I want to see is a nice discussion board where some, if not many, Chelsea fans and football fans have a matured, sensible, decent and cultured discussions. I want good commenters and good comments. From now on, the motto is ‘My Comment Is Fair Comment’. If you want to sign this pledge, drop in a comment, a fair comment.