Paul McCormick

The Comment Rules

A registered account on jonathanbowen.boston may post plain-text comments and replies of up to 10,000 characters. An "Up" vote raises a comment's score, and a "Down" vote lowers a comment's score. The Top Rated order ranks initial comments by score when the page loads. The Newest order uses the initial comment’s date, and Recently Active uses the latest contribution. Replies remain chronological. A user comment with a low reaction score may get my eyeballs. A user comment with a threat may get my fingers to start dialing the police and/or the FBI.

A comment or reply keeps its original text and place in the conversation; members cannot edit or delete a contribution. The author can quarantine and restore an individual contribution without receiving a strike or suspension. Jonathan “Jon” Bowen and the signed-in author can read quarantined text, while other readers see a placeholder.

A quarantined contribution cannot receive new votes or replies; existing replies keep their own visibility. Jon’s quarantine remains effective until Jon releases or overturns the decision, even if the author removes a self-quarantine. Jon’s quarantine adds one strike per contribution, with consecutive suspensions of 7 days for the first strike, 30 days for the second, and 365 days for each later strike. Your suspension stops comments, replies, and new contact reveals; voting on eligible contributions and account access remain available. Your private review request goes directly to Jon, whose overturned decision removes the strike from the suspension calculation.

Minor Corrections

The site may apply minor spelling and spacing corrections through a limited set of rules. Jonathan “Jon” Bowen reviews uncertain corrections, including capitalization, repeated words, and missing sentence endings. The punctuation inside a sentence and its expressive ending remain intact. A correction cannot rewrite the author’s argument or change a factual claim. The original text and dated correction history follow the contribution’s visibility rules.

Account Closure

Account closure ends discussion participation while preserving contributions under Former Member. The closed account retains sign-in for private history, purchases, and login settings. A former member can contact Jon to request reopened participation.