Rules for this blog (Sean)

Apparently, we need to clarify what, exactly, this blog is (and is not).

This blog, as we have stated here several times, exists primarily as our report to the CLF board, one of the requirements we must fulfill as delegates from that congregation. We chose the blog format because it suits us well, since we also blog our everyday life elsewhere, and also because it allows other CLF members (along with anyone else), the vast majority of whom can not come to GA, to follow along more-or-less as it happens. That put us among the very first UU bloggers, back in 2005, and due to the way we get indexed by search engines, there now appear to be quite a number of UU's following along, including many other UU bloggers. Welcome, welcome all.

Because this is our blog, it is also our forum for speaking on UU issues. We consider our opinions on all such matters to be an integral part of our required report to our congregation.

We invite thoughtful comments on what we've posted. If we've made factual errors, or mis-reported something, that is certainly worthy of commentary. Likewise, if we have stated an opinion on which you'd like to comment, that is also appropriate. Lastly, encouragement or constructive suggestions for the reporting process, especially from CLF members, is also welcome.

What this blog is not, however, is a public forum for commentary on GA or on UU issues in general. This is not a bulletin board or a chat room, neither is it a bully pulpit for anyone else's opinions other than our own (you are certainly welcome to get your own blog for that, and we along with our readers can then decide for ourselves whether to follow along).

Accordingly, I have just deleted three comments here that were, to my eye, unrelated in any way to the content of the posts to which they were supposedly commentary. They appeared to me to be "spam" -- by which I mean an attempt to use our blog to reach our readers with someone else's message. In this case, these were comments by a UU (or former UU) who clearly has some grievances (although, I assume, not with us personally), and I have deleted them without prejudice -- I have no idea whether these grievances are legitimate or not, and deleting them is not in any way an expression of judgment of their veracity, nor is it intended to diminish the commenter's inherent worth or dignity.

Like (we presume) most UU's, we are sensitive to the plight of our fellow (wo)man, to include the grievances of UU's with the UUA or their individual congregations. And we are willing to listen to those stories as we are able -- again, like most UU's, we dedicate a particular segment of our lives to helping others less fortunate than ourselves. But co-opting our report to the CLF is not an appropriate mechanism for getting our attention.

Again, we do not want to stifle legitimate commentary on this blog, and, for the time being, we are leaving comments open and unmoderated. As always, we reserve the right to delete any comments for any reason we see fit, even as our actions in this regard remain informed by our guiding principles.