When this blog was brand-new, I turned off the commenting feature (even though it frustratingly kept saying “Leave a comment” at the bottom of each post because I am inept at CSS) because all kinds of experts tell you to do that so no one can tell how lame your blog is because it has very little traffic and even fewer comments showing up…

Now that eartotheground has a small but steadily growing audience, some of whom have been telling me they want to comment, I have decided as the resident blogtator that it is time to allow comments.  The “Leave a comment” link should work from now on.

Some ground rules, as per usual (consider this my comments policy):

• Please limit comments to things that contribute to the discussion
• Don’t gratuitously link to your own blog (relevant links are, however, welcomed)
• No personal attacks or derogatory remarks based on things like race, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, religion, and anything similar that I might have left off the list for the time being.  However, please feel free to disagree respectfully with anything I write on its analytical/intellectual/etc merits, or to comment on an artist or musical phenomenon on its social/musical merits.  For example, you can hate on the phenomenon that is “Hip Hop Shabbat” because it is bad music that is being marketed using overt sexism, or you can argue that it is actually the best thing that ever happened to the Friday night liturgy, but you cannot hate on it because the artists are Jewish.
• Please don’t comment anonymously unless you have a good reason for it–that really bugs me

I will moderate you right off the blog for any violations! and if you say something particularly interesting or that generates a lot of discussion, I will highlight that in a subsequent post.  That’s the best carrot and stick I can come up with, folks.

As always, feel free to email me at listeningtosociety [at] gmail [dot] com, or you can use my personal email address if you know me–shoot me comments, questions, ideas for posts, or let me know if you’d like to write a guest post.