Featured post

More Posts you might have missed on the other site

Here, in order from oldest to most recent are the not-exactly-numerous posts that have appeared on the other site in the past two and a half...

H.o.t.E.: The Rules

The Codex Grumpianus Professoris

Title 1: The Meta-Rule
My blog : my rules.  Don't like it?  Go elsewhere.

Title 2: Citation
All material on this site is in my copyright.  Although 'public' I do not regard the up-loading of material to this site as equivalent to publication.  It is done for two reasons:
  1. to provide information to those who are interested, especially the so-called 'interested layman'
  2. to provoke response and discussion that will help me to refine the ideas contained in this material.
As 'drafts' of this sort, most of the lengthy 'research posts' contained here are otherwise unpublished, although some of it has been, or is in the process of being, worked up for publication.  Do not cite material here in written publication without obtaining my permission first.  Material cited should be attributed to me, to the page of the site containing the information and to the date accessed, with acknowledgement and an admission that the information and opinions here are provisional.

This is simply a question of basic good manners.  There's little (as far as I know) that I can do to stop you from (or punish you for) going ahead and behaving in a bad-mannered and exploitative fashion but that which I can do I will do.  Not least, I will take material down from public access if it is so abused - and when I find the article name and shame the author who has caused this reduction in publicly-available information.  OK?

What's more, as the material here is here as a draft, I do not guarantee its absolute factual reliability or that I won't change my mind in future, or that I won't go back, emend or otherwise change the page in question, so any reference to it may provide very shaky ground for an argument.

Title 3: Commenting
First, see Title 1.  I decide which comments to publish and which not, and when a discussion comes to an end, and I reserve the right to the last word.  No consistency will necessarily exist.  In particular there's not much chance of your comment appearing if:
  • it contains any sort of personal abuse towards me and/or my ideas
  • it contains generalising, slighting comments about the academic (especially the academic history) profession made from outside said profession
  • it misses the point
  • you 'push one of my buttons' - you are not necessarily to know what these are and they are inconsistent, but I'm capricious like that
  • it patronises or talks down to me - regardless of what your academic status (if any) as an historian is, but in particular if you are a: of an academic status lower than mine (I'm funny like that - talk to me as an equal, for sure, but don't talk down to me); b: of 'a particular socio-educational background', you know which one (because I've had a career's worth of that); c: a self-appointed amateur 'expert' (the sort, for example, who holds court on wargaming/amateur military history fora like 'AncMed', the thankfully-defunct 'Warflute', the WAB discussion group, TMP, 'Roman Army Talk', etc.); or d: someone who thinks that having a higher degree in a 'hard science' entitles you to dabble in 'easy' subjects like history with great authority
This 'censorship' may be for your own good - to spare you from looking like an idiot who has missed the point, or from a serious 'ass-whupping', as our American cousins might have it. Some blogs like to 'debate' with abusive posters; I can't be arsed. Even I have too much of a life for that. 

Title 4: School or College Assignments, Essays and Similar
Please do not comment asking questions to do with the above.  I do not do people's homework for them.  This goes for personal e-mails too.  See also below.

Title 5: TV/Radio (vel sim.) Researchers
I am a professional and I don't do free consultancy.  Like anyone else's, my time is money.  I don't do other people's work for nothing so, if you are a researcher, do your research.  If you want go ahead after reading this I assume you accept that I will ask you to agree to a fee.  The only exception to the above might be if my work has some relevance to a current social/political debate and an interview is required.


Culpabilis iudicetur