This blog (or fanzine, if you will) is a labor of love, and/or a maybe-expensive hobby. You can pick. But the point remains that this blog is not making any money: not off of advertisements, not off of donations, not off of anything. Not yet.

Which means everyone involved in this venture (editors, contributors, graphic artists, etc.) is a volunteer. Unless otherwise noted, we’re buying/borrowing the books we review. We are not affiliated with any company or any group, nor do our opinions here represent anyone else but the person making them.

Because we’re volunteers, this also means that none of us are obligated to put up with anything but courteous behavior from our commenters. And if courtesy is a question, imagine you’re going to someone’s home you aren’t familiar with . . . say, your spouse’s boss, and your spouse is REALLY gunning for a promotion, so good behavior counts! This means you aren’t going to cut it up and throw around dirty or offensive language. You’re not going to get super-drunk and start screaming at the guests. Nor will you start arguing with your spouse’s boss over politics and telling that boss what an idiot they are if they don’t believe that John Oliver should be our next president.

No. You’re going to be polite. You’re going to engage in conversation and if you do find yourself in a debate, you’re going to keep it civil, keep it clean, and you’re going to avoid saying anything that amounts to a personal attack.

What constitutes a personal attack? We’re glad you asked!

We at Speculative Chic will not tolerate the following from its contributors nor its commenters:

1. Unnecessary, gratuitous foul language. A little profanity can add some spice now and then, but it should not make up the majority of the comment’s (or post’s) vocabulary.
2. Name-calling directed at anyone: neither contributors, editors, commenters, nor the people referenced in the post. This can be obvious, or it can be vague (“people like you,” or “you must/probably…”). Don’t make assumptions about the personal opinions or beliefs of anyone here or related to this site, however tangentially. Your politics don’t matter in this regard.
3. Hate speech or other abusive, intentionally jerky behavior. Don’t denigrate anyone, especially if it’s someone you don’t agree with or someone different from you in any way (gender, race, sex, orientation, politics, ethnicity, etc.).

To get back to our metaphor — party at your spouse’s boss’ house — engaging in the above behaviors will get you kicked out and likely not invited back. Worse, your spouse may not get that promotion!

But, if you do a great job, your spouse might get promoted. If you’re REALLY awesome, the boss might offer you a cushy job too. Not that we’re hiring, no… like I said, everyone at Speculative Chic is a volunteer, and while we may always be on the lookout for more volunteers, we can’t pay them.

Not yet. When any of the above changes (making money, or paying our contributors, or any rule changes to our comment moderation policy), we will update this page.

So please be courteous and remember: we absolutely encourage discussion and lively debate. But remember discussion and debate requires listening in addition to talking. If anyone feels like a comment thread has gotten out of hand, please use the contact form to let us know so that we can remedy the situation as soon as we can. Remember, we are not the government, so if you get banned, remember your right to free speech allows you to spread angry, entitled vitriol somewhere else that allows it. We just don’t allow angry, entitled vitriol here.

This comment moderation policy has been inspired by running a blog for over fifteen years, as well as strict comment policy over at The Mary Sue. I’ve always likened someone’s blog space as a home you’ve been invited to, so I was thrilled they used a dinner party example.