This page serves as a collective set of guidelines about how this site works, for any of you out there that care. To be covered here will be general disclaimers, comment thread rules, and copyrights. Are you sitting comfortably? Then let’s begin.

Disclaimers

Everything on this site which is not directly factual is the opinion of Eric J. Bowersox, ofttimes known as "Erbo," creator and author of this site and owner of the erbosoft.com domain, hereinafter referred to as "me" or "I" in the first person. It's mine and mine alone. (The exception being any comments posted by interested readers, who may hereinafter be referred to as "you" in the second person, which are obviously the sole opinions of the posters thereof.)

What I write may be highly insightful, misinformed, mind-numbingly trivial, or I might just plain be full of it. Any resemblance to any other opinions out there, alive or dead, is completely coincidental.

Unless otherwise indicated, I do not speak for any of my employers, past, present, or future, and anything I say, whether concerning their products or services or otherwise, is not to be construed as any official opinion of these companies, their officers, or other employees. This list of employers includes but is not limited to:

• IQNavigator Inc.
• Dash Carrier Services LLC (now a unit of inetwork)
• Aspen Systems Inc.
• Avaltus Inc. (now defunct)
• NAREX Inc. (now part of Fair Isaac)
• Jabber Inc. (now part of Cisco Systems)
• WEBB Interactive Services Inc., formerly known as Online System Services
• Durand Communications Inc. (acquired by WEBB)
• Softool Corporation (acquired by Platinum Technologies, in turn acquired by Computer Associates)

I do, however, speak for anything that goes on under the "Erbosoft" banner, which should be obvious. After all, my name is half of that banner...

This site is operated by me solely for my own purposes. Telling me how I should run it is a good way to get me to tell you what you should do with your opinions, after you've folded them till they're all sharp corners.

The material on this site is written for an audience of ages 18 and over, and may contain coarse language or other "adult" references. Parents of young children, and those readers who may find themselves offended, are cautioned accordingly. In particular, this site does not target an audience of children under 13. (See also below.)

If you have concerns about any posting I make being factually incorrect, please contact me. Please provide details of who you are, how I can contact you, what your interest is, and what your concern is. If something in one of my posts is factually incorrect, I will address it. Anonymous complaints will be ignored, and may be posted for public mockery (if entertaining enough).

Comment Thread Rules

Comments on posts at this site are allowed at my discretion, and my discretion only. This is not a democracy. The First Amendment applies to the government, not to me. I operate on somewhat different principles, which may be summed up as follows: "There may be free speech, but there is no free lunch. You want to make a speech, get your own blog; I run and pay for this one." I reserve the right, at all times, to delete any comment if I choose not to want it here.

That said, I tend to be fairly tolerant of rannygazoo in the comments; I find that most people are capable of voicing at least some opinions that are reasonably coherent--and, even if not, their incoherent sputterings may at least have entertainment value. But here's the kinds of things that cause me to draw the line:

• Comment spam, including referer or link spam.
• Gratuitous personal attacks on other people above and beyond the subject at hand. (Not attacks against me; I'm here and I can answer those attacks if I wish. Other people may not be here to defend themselves, though.)
• Physical threats.
• Stuff that's completely unrelated to the topic at hand.
• Posting of personal information about any other person, the implication being that this is intended for others to use this information to harass or threaten that person.
• Any comments by children under the age of 13, if I am made aware that said comments are in fact by a person so underage. This part is nothing personal; it has to do with the U.S. Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), with which compliance is an arduous process. As we used to say on Electric Minds, I am not responsible for this law or its effects.

I reserve the right to change or modify any of these guidelines, at any time, with or without notice, if I see fit to do so. Which I can do, because, once again, I run this site, not you.

I will say, however, that if you put an actual name (or well-known pseudonym, such as a SL or EVE character name) on your comments, and, particularly, if you happen to be someone I know personally and/or by reputation, I may be more likely to cut you some slack than I would be for some random mope that just wandered in off the Internet.

Basically: don't be a dickhead. Remember that, and we'll probably get along just fine.

If you have concerns about any comment made on one of my posts being factually incorrect, please contact me. Please provide details of who you are, how I can contact you, what your interest is, and what your concern is. If something in a comment posted on this site is factually incorrect, I will attempt to address it using any relevant means, up to and including deleting the comment in question (as permitted by my policies; see above). Anonymous complaints will be ignored, and may be posted for public mockery (if entertaining enough).

Public Relations (i.e. Free Plugs)

These are given out by me at my whim only. If you ask politely, and I find your site, product, service, event, or whatever interesting enough to warrant spending my time on a write-up of it, well, then, it's all good. Otherwise, no can haz, not yours.

Publication of any such write-up should not be construed as a personal endorsement of the item being written about, unless I say otherwise.

No compensation will be expected, or accepted, for writing these items. If you want to find somebody to bribe, well, you'll have to go elsewhere. Or go perform anatomically-impossible acts on yourself. Whatever.

In particular, any unsolicited product or service which is sent to me for purposes of review or other publicity will, unless agreed upon in advance, be treated as a "gift" under applicable law, meaning that no compensation will be sent for said product or service, and I may dispose of such at my own discretion, and acceptance of this item will create no obligation under the law on my part towards the sender whatsoever. (In other words, if you want to get paid for it, or want it back, or want to ensure I write about it, talk to me in advance. That's not too much to ask, is it?)

Copyright Statement and License

All posts made by me on this site are copyrighted by me, as noted in the "footer" to every page on this site. They may be freely copied in whole or in part for any non-commercial purposes, but I would appreciate it if you linked back to the post in question when you do so, using the "permalink" URL as given on each post. (For commercial purposes, drop me a line; I'm sure something can be worked out.)

Any and all trademarks used in text are owned by the companies or organizations that use them, or have them registered where applicable. No infringement is intended by their use in text.

Individual commenters who post here retain all copyright to their own words. By posting a comment here, you implicitly grant me an unlimited license to retain and display your comment indefinitely as part of this site's content, with your identifying information attached thereto, as well as to possibly quote from it in making a followup comment or post.

No lawyers were harmed in the production of this document.