Updated 2013-11-19

Privacy policy

I will not knowingly collect information about you except as follows:

• If you write comments, the site will keep them and may track your username somehow based on how you logged in. This is standard, if it happens.
• If you sign up for email delivery of posts, the site will (obviously) hang onto your email and use it to send you messages.
• I use analytics software (currently Google Analytics) to see how many people are visiting the site and what they’re looking at. This is probably true of every site on the internet. They offer tools for opting out here.

I will not knowingly share information about you with companies, governments, etc., unless forced to do so by a court of law or as listed below under advertising.

At the end, I will not use any information you give me on this site to do nefarious things to you. I hate junk mail too.

Free speech

Let’s keep it civil. If you write comments to other people, imagine that they’re people with whom you’ve having a polite conversation at a friend’s house. Feel free to disagree, but do it respectfully and use words carefully. Don’t be mean.

If people leave comments that I find offensive, I might delete them. It’s my site, after all!

On this site, you’ll find what I was thinking in the moment when I wrote it. I probably won’t always think the same things in the future. Lots of people have shared concerns that writing publicly on the internet may hurt me with future employers, but I’m not that worried about it for three reasons: one, I write respectfully and carefully; two, I love my work, so I don’t write things that would embarrass my employers; and three, I think any future employer is going to be hiring me because of my writing and creativity, not despite them.

Ad policies

This site has some ads, which helps to pay me a little bit for my time and energy spent creating content. I get about a dollar whenever someone clicks an ad, and about a penny whenever 100 people look at an ad.

Google AdSense

I serve ads with Google AdSense. It’s my intention not to host advertising that promotes:

• Hate speech
• Diets, fat shaming, obesity prevention, etc. (which counts as hate speech to me)
• Religious messages
• Scams
• Messages that make people feel bad about themselves

If you see an ad that fits those categories, please tell me and I’ll do my best to make it go away. It’s especially helpful if you can give me the URL the offending ad points toward.

Amazon Associates

I’ve got some links to things you can purchase on Amazon. I’ll add them when it’s germane to the article, not just for the sake of doing so. If you buy the item after clicking my link, I’ll get about 4% as payment for it.

I am required to place this on my site: “We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.” . I’m sure you were all breathlessly waiting to learn that.

I encourage you to buy books from your local independent bookstore if you’re still lucky enough to have one. But if you’re going to buy on Amazon, I’d love it if you would buy through my links. Thanks.