We have, in the past, occasionally hinted about a certain set of rules we have here at PTC.  We decided, when we launched this web comic back in 2005, that our job was to deliver entertaining comics and tales of the adventures and opinions of the guys making those comics.  One of the ways in which we would do that is by being accessible to our audience and fans.  In the interest of maintaining the creator / worshiper relationship, we laid out a set of rules about what we would not put into the comics, and accompanying blog.

Rule 1: Do not click on links in emails.

This is a general rule for everyone to have a happier life with fewer stressed-out IT workers.

Rule 2: Do NOT click on links in emails.

If you don’t get this joke, you’re probably too young or not nerdy enough for our comics.  In which case you probably don’t find any of this entertaining and should return to playing Hello Kitty Island Adventure.

Rule 3: Be honest with you, our readers.

Over the years we’ve found that readers who know the author is being honest will tend to appreciate the author’s position and forgive more of his many shortcomings.  In that vein we remain honest.  When we tell you we make no money from this site, and that our day jobs pay better, and that we’re motivated more by this fact than our desire to do nothing but write and draw daily updates, we expect that you’ll know it’s the truth.  It’s not that we don’t want to give you a new graphic novel every day, it’s just that that’s hard to do when you’re living in a van, down by the river.

Rule 4: No blog entry over 500 words long.

Like the Pirate’s Code, this is more of a guideline than an actual rule, but long blog entries are boring and look bad.  So we try to keep them short and to the point.

Rule 5: Nothing Political.

There’s a lot of reasons for this.  Primarily, we’re not a political site.  We feel that taking a political stance just alienates our audience unless they happen to agree with us.  We don’t care if you agree with us.  We only care if you’re entertained by our work.

So, we won’t take a side, per se.  Do we have political opinions?  Sure.  Is Dave really a libertarian?  You betcha.  Does Marc really want to be Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court?  No.  He’s gunning for being an elected deity.

We might poke fun at some political ideas, and the people who tout them, but, we’re not going to take a stance and endorse one idea over others.  You can be sure that if we ever do endorse a political candidate, we either know him/her personally, or s/he paid us off.  In either case, you should consider carefully the sort of politician that would associate with us, or that would give us money for an endorsement, and make up your own mind.

Rule 6: Lie about almost everything.

In keeping with Rule 3, we should tell you honestly, that almost everything on this site is a lie.  The kind of honesty we were talking about is being intellectually honest, not honest like telling the truth honest.

Except if we’re attending a show, then everything about the time and date and that we’ll be there will be as absolutely true as possible.  We love meeting fans.