If the word “Trump” appears in a post, I’ll be commenting at The Jury Talks Back. I won’t be commenting here. This policy will remain in effect for the foreseeable future, until further notice.

This is for two reasons.

First, I am trying to promote commentary at The Jury Talks Back. The comments section there tends to be a little less lively than here, in part out of habit (we’re all used to commenting at the main site), and in part because I still lack a Recent Comments section there, which means it takes more effort to maintain a conversational flow. But I like the idea of the ethic at The Jury Talks Back, which is that there is a strict adherence to civil conversation. There are no personal attacks and no strawman arguments. The rule is that you behave the same way you would if I had invited you to my living room. I’d like to see more people participating there — and if the prospect of discussing the post with the blog proprietor is a plus (and hey, maybe it’s not), then I can help increase the volume of comments there.

Second, any post with the word “Trump” in it inevitably devolves at some point into personal commentary, usually accusing me of bias against Trump. Even when this sort of commentary comes from only one or two people, I find it irritating and it puts me in a bad mood. It’s pretty much impossible to defend against vague accusations like that. I keep wanting to discuss the actual issue I blogged about, but the issue gets lost when people insist on complaining about me and my views about Trump on a personal level. It’s not fun for me, and if an aspect of the blogging experience is not fun for me, then it makes me want to change it.

And for now, that means commenting at The Jury Talks Back when a post contains the word “Trump.”

People can still challenge my criticism of Trump there. They just can’t criticize me on a personal level while they do so. For now, that’s something I need. I hope readers understand.