I want you to feel at home when you post a comment on Biting Into Life (BIL). I want everyone to feel at home posting comments on BIL. I don’t know what your home is like, but when people come visit me in my house, I know how I  that I expect people to behave well. That’s why I reserve the right to delete comments and ban users as needed to keep the comment threads here civil and well-grounded.

My No. 1 house rule is simple: Don’t be a bitch.

Want to be the kind of commenter I’d love to invite to Thanksgiving dinner? Here’s what I like to see in comments:

• Weigh in with smart, informed ideas that contribute further to the story.
• Give me useful, constructive criticism. Spot a typo or an error? Let me know and I’ll correct it.
• Demonstrate and share the love, intelligence, wisdom, and humor I know you possess.
• Don’t feed the trolls. You wouldn’t dive into a debate with my well-informed person.

Although I can’t be everywhere at once, here are some of the kinds of comments that won’t be welcomed:

• Promoting your own brand, product, or blog. So you’ve discovered the cure for cancer? Awesome. Send it through my contact form.
• Impersonating authors or other commenters. I shouldn’t have to tell you not to do that but I’ll tell you anyway: C’mon! Don’t do that.
• Comments that show clearly you didn’t read the article. Enraged that I didn’t mention this, this or that? Hold up. Read the whole article and you’ll notice that I did mention this, this or that?
• Comments that are completely off track. Sometimes discussions veer off a bit but are still related to the original subject. That’s fine. Hijacking the conversation to promote off-topic commentary is not.
• Threats — no matter how vague — against the author or other commenters. Things can get heated but don’t start pointing the gun at anybody, blackmail people in public, or else.
• Racism, sexism, homophobia, you get the idea. Call me the Internet Police, but don’t say I didn’t warn you when you get banned or deleted.
• Trolling. If you’re a vegan fundamentalist or a vegan hater and just out for a good trolling and are not contributing meaningfully to the conversation, I’ll delete your post and do my best to ban you.