…we don’t much like dealing with mostly-anonymous drive-by shooters who choose to act out in our comments section. We could just delete ’em as we see ’em—but we’d rather not—we like free speech as much as the next guy, and we really don’t want to be the Comment Police.
Instead—since we *do* love spirited, irreverent conversation as much as the next duke ‘em out debater—we’ve come up with the following comments policy (although we reserve the right to delete if we absolutely must.) We’d love to hear what you think – yes in the comments, of course!
First, Take Responsibility
All comments within this blog are the responsibility of the commenter, not OurPDX Networks. We’d prefer it if you used a real name or consistent handle (we like to know who we’re talking with), and we do ask you to fill in an email address. In return, we’ll never reveal, display, publicize or otherwise share your email address with anyone else – although we may contact you from time to time directly about your specific comment.
All email, snail mail, phone numbers or any other private information posted in any comment will be deleted as soon as possible to protect the privacy of our commenters.
By submitting a comment on our blog, you agree that the comment content is your own, and to hold OurPDX Networks, and all subsidiaries (hey, we can dream—can’t we?) and representatives harmless from any and all repercussions, damages, or liability.
Second, Be Respectful
The best rule of thumb here is “Would you say it to my face?” “Would you say it in my living room?” If not – don’t say it at all. Comments that don’t add to the conversation or take it in an unpleasant direction may be removed or deleted. Personal attacks aren’t permitted – question or argue about the content all you’d like, but don’t attack the authors or other commenters. Finally, if you post a comment that is obviously an attempt to get people upset (also known as “flaming” or “trolling”), or post comments under multiple names, you should expect a warning and/or deletion.
OurPDX Networks reserves the right to delete, move, or mark as spam any and all comments. Frequent comment violators may be blocked from future access and/or commenting on this blog. (Yes, this is waaay more draconian than we want to be. Please don’t make us do this!)
What do you think, oh commenters….?
(Revised at 8:40 pm on 8/27 after feedback from readers; developed with guidance from Lorelle VanFossen’s post Does your blog have a comments policy?, help from a punctuation expert, and advice from other comment policy creators.)
{ 12 comments }
I like it. Lighthearted, but I think it covers everything. Thinking about whether I might need one of these myself.
The only (minor) change I’d perhaps suggest is that OurPDX not edit comments. Either the comment meets the “ok” threshold, or it doesn’t. Once comments start getting edited, it’s hard to also take the “we have no responsibility for the comments” stance.
Other than that, it seems like a reasonable policy. In short: be nice
I agree with Aaron on editing. But I think the proposed policy is reasonable and allows those who wish to act like adults to do so.
And protects us from those who aren’t interested in acting like adults.
YHBT. YHL. HAND.
Ugh – I meant to remove ‘edit’ from all of the language and accidentally left it in the final paragraph. I agree with all that editing a comment creates a slippery slope/murky atmosphere.
The only time I’d edit a comment, frankly, is to remove something that was clearly libelous or a copyright violation – and I’d simply remove the offending passage and clearly note that I’d done just that in the comments itself. But it’s probably just cleaner/clearer to remove the entire comment itself than to pick through the content.
I’ll do an edit of this post later on (clearly marked) to incorporate feedback to date…!
Is a policy really needed? I mean if someone is going to leave a nasty comment, a policy probably wont stop them.
Is a policy needed? Well, it helps when you delete a comment if you can point to a policy. Otherwise, you get to listen to lots of “you’re just biased against….” protests.
Based on my experience with a few other websites….
Talea’s got it. We want to have firm ground to stand on should we need to delete a comment, and make sure we’ve set clear expectations for all from now on.
Another reason to have a policy is to have stated, enforceable consequences to its violation. This one does. One hopes they will never be invoked, but it is necessary to have them.
Was it something I said? Ha! Seriously, very straightforward. I hope someday I’ll have need for a comments policy myself. When I do make one, you can be sure I’ll refer back to this post and the Lorelle VanFossen’s post your referenced for guidance. Thanks!
The policy makes a lot of sense. But IMO, the first two paragraphs could be tightened up with respect to the final paragraph:
It sounds like you’re saying you don’t want to delete comments, and you won’t — except under extreme circumstances. But then the last paragraph gives a different impression.
I think it’s excellent that you’ve decided to delete certain comments. I can understand your not wanting to be the ‘comment Police’, but uh… that’s the job you have. Unless you want to implement a Slashdot-like system where we all do it.
I’m very happy you’ve chosen to actively moderate the discussions. Totally free and open conversation has little value. Too many Internet kooks and dorks. We can all go anywhere and get that already. Your editing is really the the added value that you provide. We all have limited time during the day. When I choose to read a thread, it’s because I want to read about that topic, not the loudest person’s opinion of what the topic should be.
I fortunately have yet to experience nasty comments on my blog. But for some reason I am excited for when I do. Instead of deleting them, I’ll just bite back and be a douche instead which will work fine for my blogs purpose
Nice blog btw.
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