New Comments Policy for 2006
We have decided that there will be a new comments policy on the Northwest Progressive Institute Official Blog this year.
We decided a new comments policy was necessary after carefully reviewing the thread attached to Jonathan's post on Senator Cantwell's successful efforts to block drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge.
We do not have comment threads on this blog so that Republican hacks and members of the 101st Fighting Keyboardists can drop by and leave RNC talking points, or deliberately trash this organization and the progressive movement.
The comment threads exist for intelligent discussion, and to allow readers to point out mistakes in our posts or offer additional information.
From here on out, the comments policy is as follows:
And just so that this is clearly understood - in our eyes, a troll is not necessarily someone with a conservative point of view. People who have something thoughtful to say are always welcome to comment. People who offer misinformation, jeering, and nothing of value are not welcome to comment here.
For the last couple of weeks, we've had comment moderation enabled, which has allowed us to screen comments before they are posted. Comment moderation is now off, and comments will appear immediately upon posting.
If we notice that our comments policy is not being respected, we will turn comment moderation back on, but we'd prefer not to. Please respect the comments policy. To our loyal and polite commenters, thank you for your patience. It's greatly appreciated.
We decided a new comments policy was necessary after carefully reviewing the thread attached to Jonathan's post on Senator Cantwell's successful efforts to block drilling in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge.
We do not have comment threads on this blog so that Republican hacks and members of the 101st Fighting Keyboardists can drop by and leave RNC talking points, or deliberately trash this organization and the progressive movement.
The comment threads exist for intelligent discussion, and to allow readers to point out mistakes in our posts or offer additional information.
From here on out, the comments policy is as follows:
- No profanity. We don't care what your political persuasion is - no profanity, please. There is no need for it. The radical right is trying to engage in a culture war. Their goals are to divide and disrupt. When swearing matches erupt, that's a victory for them.
- Don't type in all caps. Over the past year, we've observed that a couple commenters deliberately type in ALL CAPS. All caps is equivalent to shouting. Again, (as you may have noticed) the right is trying to engage in a culture war. When shouting matches erupt, they win. Commenters who type in all caps will be first warned and then banned if they continue to comment in all caps.
- Have something of value to say. We're going to be flexible with the definition of what we consider to be value. Value could be humor (including snark and satire), a polite correction, a personal viewpoint, new information, and so on. Value is a broad definition. For our policy, it covers everything that we don't consider trolling (or disruptive behavior).
And just so that this is clearly understood - in our eyes, a troll is not necessarily someone with a conservative point of view. People who have something thoughtful to say are always welcome to comment. People who offer misinformation, jeering, and nothing of value are not welcome to comment here.
For the last couple of weeks, we've had comment moderation enabled, which has allowed us to screen comments before they are posted. Comment moderation is now off, and comments will appear immediately upon posting.
If we notice that our comments policy is not being respected, we will turn comment moderation back on, but we'd prefer not to. Please respect the comments policy. To our loyal and polite commenters, thank you for your patience. It's greatly appreciated.
