Digital Garden Terms of Service

With thanks to swyxio for the origination of these terms, shared under a Creative Commons license. These are lightly adjusted for my own use.

For Visitors

This is a Digital Garden. This is my personal space for Learning In Public. Everything is a work in progress, but I do not let perfectionism get in the way. That means that what you read here is not authoritative or complete, and is not representative of my best work.

However, it is representative of my interests and current state of knowledge, and if you have the same interests, then this space is also yours to use as a reference. Feedback and social sharing is welcome - that is the whole point of being public!

Note that these terms make various references to feedback on this page. At the current time, I haven’t provided any facility for this, so this is redundant! I intend to provide some basic feedback mechanism in due time, at which point I will update this accordingly.

1. Right to Be Wrong

I have a right to be wrong or incomplete in my writing, either due to paucity of time or knowledge. You will not hold this, or my readership, against me because I will keep learning, with your help. Everything in the Digital Garden is a living document and I will retract or rephrase things I no longer agree with.

2. Constructive Criticism

You are expressly welcome to comment on, tear apart, counter-argue, or outright disagree on anything here. No compliment sandwich needed - I learn most from critics. I will listen to you but I don’t promise to agree with you. Please also suggest what else I should include, read, watch, or listen to, or tell me what you would have written instead.

Better yet, write a better version of what I did and publish it on your own Garden. I’d love to read it.

3. Attribute, don’t Plagiarize

Don’t plagiarize. You’re welcome to quote, with attribution and a link back here. I don’t waive copyright for commercial purposes. But feel free to share ideas and riff off of them.

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For Me

These are ground rules and commitments I take on myself in creating this digital garden.

1. Consideration of Others

• I will not publish private conversations or confidential information.
• I will consider the feelings of others if I ever write negatively about something people have worked on or said.
• I will try to ensure I have not assumed incompetence or malice due to my ignorance of someone’s full body of work.
• I will err on the side of treating others as they want to be treated.
• I will “steelman” arguments. Instead of picking on the weakest piece of an argument, I will confront the best version of that argument by seeking first to understand before trying to be understood.

2. Epistemic Disclosure

• I will report how strongly I hold my beliefs, always reserving the right to be wrong and change my mind.
• I will report how much experience I have in the topic, by disclosing how much work I have done so far on it and linking to others who will know more.
• I will link to further resources so that readers can discover influencing and contrasting opinions from the original source.

I don’t think this always needs to be disclosed, for example if it is obvious from context. But it never hurts. In the spirit of this commitment, the practice of disclosing epistemic status and effort originates from Devon Zuegel.

3. Response to Feedback

• I will not get discouraged if I don’t receive feedback. I plant ideas in my Digital Garden for my own use, not to get visitors.
• I will reward feedback by listening and immediately correcting things I got wrong.
• I do not promise to agree with or respond to all feedback.

Additional terms

Inspired by the legal advice of the esteemed Cory Doctorow, please read the following carefully.

By reading this website, you agree, on behalf of your employer, to release me from all obligations and waivers arising from any and all NON-NEGOTIATED agreements, licenses, terms-of-service, shrinkwrap, clickwrap, browsewrap, confidentiality, non-disclosure, non-compete and acceptable use policies (“BOGUS AGREEMENTS”) that I have entered into with your employer, its partners, licensors, agents and assigns, in perpetuity, without prejudice to my ongoing rights and privileges. You further represent that you have the authority to release me from any BOGUS AGREEMENTS on behalf of your employer.