Shanti is facing a flame war about her comments policy.

Inspite of my best efforts, I haven’t managed to attract any trolls or hatemailers, but hope resides eternal. In any case, as a contingency measure, I have put in place a pre-emptive comments policy.

1. If you are a decent guy, your comments will be welcome here. I won’t tell you what kinds of comments are acceptable. Decent guys don’t need to be told and nutcases won’t read it anyway.
2. I will tolerate the occasional over-the-top comments from decent guys. I won’t even tell you that your comments are over-the-top. Decent guys don’t need to be told, and nutcases won’t care.
3. I won’t tell you what action I will take against nutcases, except to assure you that it won’t involve physical violence. I won’t even tell you after I have taken such action. Once again, decent people won’t need to be told and nutcases will?find a way to circumvent if told.
4. I can, however, tell you that my first reaction to a troll or a hatemailer will be to ignore him.
5. Subject to [1] and [2], I won’t put any restriction on the content of the comments, save one. No one will ever tell me that I am “entitled to my opinion”, or that “this is a democracy where everyone has freedom of speech.” I am putting this restriction as a matter of taste. This is the most cliched way to end an argument and also the most pointless.

   Likewise, no one will ever accuse me of throttling their freedom of speech because
   a) I criticised what they said, or
   b) because I took some action under pt 3.
   That you do not have freedom of speech on my property ought to go without saying, but people cry “freedom of speech!” so often that it has to be said.

In places where I have said “decent guy”, please change the second word according to your gender.