The Vexen Crabtree Disclaimer

Disclaimer Contents:

1. Copyright
2. The Amazon Associate Program
3. Google Privacy Disclaimer and Cookies
4. Fallibility
5. Imperfect English
6. Offensive, Immature and Opinionated Content
7. Disclaimer
8. Criticism
9. Don't Embed Images From My Servers
10. Words and Terminology
    1. Date and Time Formats: CE and BCE, AD and BC
    2. Hir
    3. Theology
    4. -isation and ise, versus ization and ize

1. Copyright

All pages are Copyright Vexen Crabtree. All rights reserved. If you want to copy any of my text, then quote and attribute it properly. If you want to put any images I have created on your site, then contact me and ask! There are widely used legal precedents for taking reasonably sized quotations from published material and using them as long as you properly attribute it.

2. The Amazon Associate Program

Vexen Crabtree is a participant in the Amazon EU Associates Programme, an affiliate advertising programme designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk.

The Amazon Associate program operating agreement update 2011 Sep 22 requires that the above declaration is made. In short, I get a small commission for each book that is bought from (1) the book links I have on my pages and (2) the occasional box of Amazon book adverts. This gives me some revenue to occasionally buy a few books, and partially recoups the cost of hosting my domains.

3. Google Privacy Disclaimer and Cookies

Many of my sites have a floating Google Ads section on the right-hand side. As part of my use of Google Ads, I have to tell you the following information:

• Third party vendors, including Google, use cookies to serve ads based on users' prior visits to my websites.

• Google's use of the DART cookie enables it and its partners to serve ads based on users visits to my sites and/or other sites on the Internet.

• Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting Google's advertising opt-out page. (Alternatively, you can opt out via the Network Advertising Initiative opt-out page.)

4. Fallibility

Sources of information should always be checked. No authority, claim or assertion should exist unchallenged or be accepted unconditionally. This is why I provide extensive sources and try to always state where I obtained information from. Nonetheless, sometimes mistakes get through the net. If somebody tells me something then it has first been filtered, translated, stored, recalled, re-interpreted and then re-transmitted by at least two fallible Human Beings. Sometimes I may have been misinformed. I could have read an ill-researched book or somebody could have lied. Perhaps it's a conspiracy to deceive or a popular delusion that has undermined my data. No matter what the reason is, I rectify mistakes upon becoming aware of them. So, please, make me aware using the feedback pages I have put on nearly every page.

5. Imperfect English

I am always appalled at how many spelling mistakes, misconstructed sentences and English eccentricities haunt my writing. It seems every time I review a page, I spot English errors that need correcting. If you spot some, please let me know. I do not mind the occurrence of some Americanisms, just like I will occasionally use Latin, French or German phrases (etc). I try to employ spellcheckers but as I write nearly everything in Notepad, sometimes I forget! Don't judge me too harshly about that, ok! This quote from a school report (10 years ago) is amusing and relevant:

“[Vexen] is quiet in class, but is an industrious worker. His imagination is easily fired and he writes with real flair, using good vocabulary to express himself. He writes at length and presents his work well. Obviously he thinks about things and has an individual mind. His weakness is spelling. I want [him] to use the dictionary, to check spellings and to check his final draft after completion.”

Gillian Tomlinson (1992), English teacher report.

6. Offensive, Immature and Opinionated Content

Some of my pages are opinionated, arrogant and immature. Be warned. If the information on any of my pages offends or insults someone; then so be it. There are so many people that everything written will insult someone. I do not do it on purpose and any such insult is not an attack on any individual. Such forcefulness comes from my enthusiasm for truth and the advancement of humanity.

7. Disclaimer

I am a provider of information. What people decide to do with that information is out of my hands, and not my responsibility! People should take into account the long term consequences of their actions and I provide information to help with people's lives as best I can. All information provided is given with the intent of improving the secure, stable, truth-centered life, and is not to be used destructively.

8. Criticism

I thrive on factual arguments. To argue with strong arguments is my favorite method of learning. I have no problems with admitting that I'm made a mistake. I've made mistakes in the past and will continue to do so. You cannot annoy me by having a differing opinion (only by failing to learn or engage). If you do a contrary web page I'll link it in the relevant place, or quote you. Use the Contact Vexen! page! Anything that makes people think is good.

“I think acceptance of personal criticism is an essential part of self development. I think being able to automatically accept criticism is better than automatically rejecting it.”

"On the Acceptance of Personal Criticism" by Vexen Crabtree (2002)

9. Don't Embed Images From My Servers

If you want to use an image from my server, copy the image to one of your own stores on the Internet. Do not merely embed my image into your page or profile. When I notice an image getting hits from alien servers, I will rename the image, which means the image on your profile will disappear and break. It steals my (precious) bandwidth when you steal images like that, and is bad netiquette.

10. Words and Terminology

I want to pick words that are insulting to the fewest people. I want to pick words that do not reflect unnecessarily on the sex, race or religion of the person I am talking with/about.

10.1. Date and Time Formats: CE and BCE, AD and BC

10.1.1. Use CE and BCE, not AD and BC

“

Wikipedia notes how the standard transition from BCE to CE is made according to ISO-8601 international standards.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_8601

CE means Common Era and is the name of the most popular dating system. The current year is 2000ce.

BCE means Before Current Era and it counts the time before CE, counting backwards. 1bce is the year before 1ce.

BC means Before Christ and is a reference to a prediction of the Christian messiah's birth date made in the second millennium. The date of Jesus Christ's birth is known to be about 4 bce, so the reference is poor. It is also being replaced for the same reason that AD is being replaced.

AD means Anno domini which means "in the year of our lord". Less than a third of the world is Christian, and expecting someone to conform to a religious convention that is not their own is immoral.

CE has the same value as AD, and BCE has the same value as BC. The reason to use the politically correct terms of CE and BCE is so that you do not assert Christian mythology onto non-Christians. When a person chooses to use "BCE" and "CE" they are showing that they do not discriminate against people on account of their religion - they are showing themselves to be considerate and moral. Using the term "BC" and "AD" shows inconsideracy for others' feelings and beliefs (unless of course they do not know the difference (like most people), which is why I wrote this!).”

"Human Temporal Measurements: Time Measurements and Date Formats: 3. Use BCE and CE, not BC and AD" by Vexen Crabtree (2005)

10.1.2. International Date Format

“The YYYY MM DD date format is the internationally agreed concise format for unambiguous dates and is to be adopted by everyone. It is logical, with the biggest denominators being listed first (the same way as numbers, times and weights are), making it easily sortable and utterly clear. The International Organization for Standardization specification for the International Date Format is the ISO-8601 format, adopted so far by the United Nations, commerce groups, scientific communities and some Western governments, although most individuals generally continue to use culture-specific date formats. "2005 02 29" is an example of an ISO-8601-compliant date.”

"Human Temporal Measurements: Time Measurements and Date Formats" by Vexen Crabtree (2005)

10.2. Hir

Hir is a short word for "His/Her" or "Him/Her". Instead of writing the awkward sentence "Where is his/her file?" we write "Where is hir file?". Many other languages (such as Cantonese, Chinese and French) have a word that means "him/her" or "she/he". There is no easy way to shorten (s)he, so I accept "(s)he" as a good enough construct. The word "it" is unfortunately seen as too impersonal to be used for humans of unknown or irrelevent gender, which is why the proposals for a gender-neutral pronoun have been one of the most common elements of English reform. Most the time, the use of the word "they" in a singular way will suffice but sometimes this causes ambiguity if, in context, it might be referring to a plural number of other people. There are many wild suggestions out there to fix these problems, hir is one of the most textually aesthetic. Its drawback is that there is a tendency to pronounce it exactly the same as "her".

• What was hir name?
• Where is (s)he?
• "This means: if a worker makes a specific request to hir employer that has something to do with hir beliefs, hir employer has to consider it.". From "The European Union: Democratic Values, The Euro, Crises and Migration: 8.6. European Law and Values on Religion" by Vexen Crabtree (2007).
• "The service should be victim-orientated, not god-orientated, and certainly should not be an opportunity for a Christian to preach hir beliefs to others.". From "Enforced Christianity in the Modern British Army: Remembrance Sunday and Church Parades" by Vexen Crabtree (2011).
• "If an islander wants to remove immigrants, he should probably start with removing hirself!". From "UK Immigration, Economics and Pensions: 3.1. The History of an Island Nation That Endorsed the Slave Trade" by Vexen Crabtree (2011).

10.3. Theology

When I say I "study theology" some people assume I mean Christianity, because this is what it most frequently means however the term doesn't only mean the study of Christian theology:

“I am using the plural ['theologies'] here deliberately. A polytheistic religion gives many different accounts of the divine beings, and these accounts, or theologies, reflect the divine patronage of their inventors. People sometimes raise their eyebrows when they hear of Pagan theology, but in fact the word 'theology' dates from Pagan times and was first used concerning Pagan deities.”

Prudence Jones in "Pagan Pathways"
Graham Harvey & Charlotte Hardman (1995) [Book Review]₁

10.4. -isation and ise, versus ization and ize

The -ize spelling is called Oxford Spelling and is used extensively by Oxford University Press and the OED. Cambridge University Press, quite predictably, have the opposite stance and consider -ise to be the norm. Historically, English has seen both variants used in abundance. Neither one is more correct or more modern.

Because the Americans have limited themselves to the -ize spelling, for whatever reason, many in the rest of the English-speaking world have reacted by calling it "the American spelling" and therefore limited themselves to the -ise spelling. This is pointless sectarian reactionism and people should be corrected when they call z-spelling "AmericaniZation"! It is not.