A Few Ground Rules For Everygnome

Note: This is a working draft. Please let me know if you have any suggestions.

Someone told me that my publication name was too long and they misread it as “Of Evolving Gnomes🧙🏻‍♂️and the Everlasting Life”.

Gnomes are these dwarf-like creatures that live underground and guard their treasures.

Genome is an organism’s entire DNA content.

There is a difference.

But hey, maybe now I am gonna call all my subscribers little gnomes🧙🏼.

So here I want to set some guidelines and expectations before we get too excited.

Whether you identify as a Christian, atheist, seeker, or gnome, you are welcome here. I want to cultivate a space where science and faith and engage in meaningful and fruitful dialogues.

A few expectations for this community:

• Be respectful: You do not have to agree with someone to treat them with dignity.

• Be kind: Assume there is a real person behind every comment…

• Stay curious: Ask questions to understand, not just to win an argument.

• Give people the benefit of the doubt: Tone can be hard to read online, and people often come from very different backgrounds.

• Communicate clearly: Sometimes I have to read a comment 5 times just to understand what they are trying to say. Help everygnome out.

Let’s be honest and realistic, nobody can respond to every comment and reply. Gnomes are busy; everygnome knows that.

So when someone does not reply to you within the standard 19-minute Substack response window, they are probably just digging somewhere.

No one is obligated to respond to you, so please see every reply as a courtesy, not something you are entitled to!

I’ve had many wonderful disagreements with many people here. Try to put yourself in another gnome’s shoes and understand where they are coming from.

Do gnomes wear shoes?

It helps to understand why someone holds a particular view before judging them for what they believe.

I’ve encountered enough trolls here, so I adopted the zero tolerant approach. Gnomes exhibit the following behavior will be sent to destination blocked immediately. No warning, no exception.

• Hate speech, name-calling, racism, disrespectful behavior, and similar conduct

• Bad-faith questioning or sealioning, like when the Pharisees tried to trap Jesus with questions

• Clearly being a jerk—oh yes, we can tell

• Self-promotion with no genuine interest in engaging; no one likes that

• Spam, which will be muted at first and blocked if it continues

If you find yourself blocked, don’t worry—you’re not the first one.

I just crossed 300 subs this week! I am genuinely thankful for each and everygnome of you. Okay, I have to be honest, I don’t really like gnomes. I think they are a little creepy.

Sincerely yours,

Chi-Jing