This blog is only lightly pseudonymous.  Anyone who clicks on “About Historiann” and has the Google can find a wealth of information about my non-virtual professional life.  Other academic bloggers make different decisions, but I thought it was best that people know who they are dealing with, since my posts are informed by my academic training and fields of expertise.  (At the very least, it keeps me honest.)  You are all free to be pseudonymous here if you choose, but because this blog is linked to my life in the “straight world,” I prefer to keep everything on the up and up here:

1. Historiann is my blog.  This seems obvious to me, but apparently it’s not to some people:  note the tag line in the header above:  “history and sexual politics, 1492-present.”  When you comment here, you’re a guest.  I try to make everyone feel welcome, but I am not obligated to comment extensively on issues that are important to you, and you have no right to demand that I do so here.
2. This is a feminist/womanist blog.  Non-feminists are free to comment so long as you follow the rules, but please note that when I post about bias against women, people of color, and GLBTQ people, it’s more than a little obnoxious to start out a comment by saying, “well, as a white man, I’ve been discriminated against too.”  I’m sure there are blogs out there that are all about the problems of the downtrodden white man, so please share your concerns there.
3. Please keep your comments relatively brief and on topic.  400-500 word essays are for the op-ed pages or posts on your blog.  They’re not appropriate for the comments on my blog.  Some exceptions will apply occasionally, but try to gage how your comments are received by other commenters and by me.  If you’re not generating a lot of discussion about your ideas, posting an even longer and more belligerent comment is probably not the way to go.
4. Be respectful of the other commenters and me.  Pointed questions, challenges, and spirited debate are welcome, but attacks on people’s integrity, reading comprehension abilities, and intellectual capacity will get you banned from commenting here.  Comments that don’t address the main point of a post or that continue to hammer away on the same foolish tangent will be summarily deleted.  Provocateurs will not be permitted to disrupt the conversations here.