Welcome to The Hinky Meter!
I actually don’t have very many rules for readers kind enough to share their thoughts with me here at The Hinky Meter. But the few I have, I feel strongly about so I will share them now.
1. Please try to keep your comments on-topic. Primarily because off-topic comments diminish the discussion that may be developing via others’ comments. If you have something you would like to bring up for which there is no thread it really fits, try going to my Introductory Entry for The Hinky Meter and placing that comment there. I most likely won’t ever have a “chit-chat” area, but if you have thoughts on cases you would like to have a thread to discuss, or areas of a particular case you think would be worthy of discussion, drop me a comment on the previously mentioned thread and we can discuss it. OR, email me at the contact email link.
2. Please don’t write posts that are aimed at conveying nothing but mean-spirited comments about a person (any person). I don’t care if it is the accused in a crime. I love a good zing at some one as much as the next person, I don’t mind calling it like I see it (or them like I see them), but try to get your zing in while conveying an intelligent thought that furthers the discussion of the topic.
3. No comments will be allowed that are derogatory toward another commenter, or ANY OTHER SITE on the internet. Doesn’t matter if the site is a discussion board, a blog, or a news network. I won’t be drawn into net-wars because of attacking comments of another site. If you have an opinion about a PARTICULAR thought of another commenter, or a piece of content on another site, feel free to share your opinion about that CONTENT. But it should be toward a specific piece of information, not some general comment like “Everything they say is stoopid!” I will delete comments that attack other sites or commenters. I have been active online since the 80′s…back when the “Ethernet” was reserved for universities and research facilities, and text-based BBS’s were all that was available…back when 9800 Baud was screaming. I understand the “digital ego” and can see baiting behavior and drama-whores from 10-gig away…I won’t be fooled by anyone attempting to pull this blog (or me personally) into that mess.
4. Please do not wish any one to hell here. I personally have never met or researched a single individual (that includes Ted Bundy, Adolf Hitler and a very abusive ex-husband) who I would wish to hell. It is a spiritual line I feel very uncomfortable seeing crossed. I will edit any such phrase out of your comment.
5. If you find fault, or strongly disagree with any of my work or opinions, please feel free to express your thoughts here. I would much rather read it here and be able to consider it, and discuss it with you so that I have the opportunity to grow from your input, than to be informed some one attacked my work behind my back in a place that I might not be able to offer a defense, or even read the derogatory comment myself. Please note, this does not mean you get to come here and PERSONALLY attack me. That’s equivalent to walking into my living room and attempting to drop a turd on my coffee table. I will treat you the same in this virtual world as I would in my own home. You will be escorted out.
6. The cases we discuss here at The Hinky Meter can evoke strong emotions of anger, a sense of wanting to take retaliation against the perpetrator(s), etc. No talk of torture, or voicing a desire for some systematic system of torture will be allowed on this board. This does not mean that if you want to express your personal feelings, such as “I’d like to choke the stuffing out of them”, or “I’d like to bitch-slap that person”, etc. that I will have any problem with that. But if you start waxing eloquent about detailed torture sessions you’re envisioning for that person…I’m most likely not going to allow your comment to stand intact, and will start sleeping with one eye open – looking straight at you.
That’s about it!
Valhall.
