Reader comments: rules and privacy

Updated 17 October 2026. This note covers comments on Nic’s personal book, Me? I think., at nicbtw.blog/me/. The service is operated by Ident Group Ltd. Contact outreach@identgroup.ltd with privacy, removal or moderation questions.

Your choice of identity

No account, email address or real name is required. Stay Anonymous or choose a display name. Names are unverified. “Anonymous” hides your name from readers; it does not make your connection technically anonymous to the server.

What is stored

We store your submitted comment, optional name, submission time, moderation status and a hashed removal code. Published comments and replies are public. Anyone may copy public content. Your removal code is kept in this browser’s local storage only when you submit a comment, so you can delete it later. You can copy it and use it on another browser. It is a private deletion key: don’t share it.

To limit spam we keep a daily keyed fingerprint derived from the connecting IP address, the action and its time. These records expire after 24 hours and are not used to rank comments or build advertising profiles. The comments database does not store raw IP addresses. Normal hosting and security logs can separately contain connection information, including IP addresses. This feature adds no advertising trackers, third-party comment widgets or analytics cookies.

Moderation and retention

New comments are private until Nic approves them. Nic can approve, reply, decline or remove a comment. A reply may approve the reader’s original comment at the same time. Replies identified as “Nic · Author” are posted from the private server terminal. Other names are not identity checks.

Pending comments expire after 30 days. Declined comments are deleted. Published comments stay until removed by you or the moderator. Removing a reader comment also removes its replies and reports. Reports contain the reported comment number, reason and time, remain private, and expire after 30 days. Expired records are cleared on the next cleanup run, which runs hourly while the service is online. Encrypted comment backups are retained for up to 14 days and removed on the next successful daily backup. They are not a public archive. If a backup is restored, removal requests must be reapplied before comments are reopened.

Keep it thoughtful

You can disagree, ask about the book, share an experience, or leave a short thought. Please avoid abuse, threats, discriminatory attacks, impersonation, spam, sexual content, or identifying information about someone else. Don’t publish addresses, phone numbers, school details, private messages or medical records. You never need to disclose a diagnosis, trauma or other sensitive information to join in.

Comments about mental health are personal conversation. This section is not a counselling or emergency service and is not continuously monitored. Reports go to Nic for review; they do not automatically hide a comment. There are no likes, trending lists, recommendations or popularity rankings. Published threads appear oldest first, with author replies underneath.

Removal and questions

Use “Your comments on this browser” or “Have a removal code?” to delete your comment and its replies. Without the code, contact outreach@identgroup.ltd with the comment number and enough context to locate it. We may need to check a removal request to avoid deleting somebody else’s words. Don’t email extra sensitive details unnecessarily.

Submitting a comment is optional. The form asks you to acknowledge that your words and chosen name may be published after moderation. Only submit words you are comfortable making public.