COMMENTING

WCI COMMENTING RULES OF ETIQUETTE:

While open and honest debate is encouraged here, Washington County Insider asks that you comply with the following rules for posting. Those who do not comply will have their posts removed and may result in being banned from commenting.

Washington County Insider will not publish comments that:

  • Are considered likely to provoke, attack or offend others. This is known as “trolling.” Trollers know when they are trolling, and so do we. *See definition of “troll” below. If you notice a few consistent blog trolls disappear, you’ll know why.
  • Are sexually explicit, abusive or otherwise objectionable.
  • Contains inappropriate or vulgar language that is likely to offend.
  • Break the law or condone or encourage unlawful activity. This includes breach of copyright, defamation and contempt of court.
  • Advertise products or services for profit.
  • Are seen to impersonate someone else.
  • Are personal or confidential information about another person. We will not allow anyone posts of someone else’s credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, unlisted phone numbers, driver’s license numbers, etc. 
  • Contain content that you know is inaccurate, false or confidential.
  • Repeatedly post the same or similar messages (‘spam’)
  • Include personal contact details such as telephone numbers and postal or email addresses.
  • Include a link or photo that has not been approved by the editor prior to posting.
  • Are considered campaigning. See also “trolling” above.
  • Are unrelated to the topic.

NOTES:

  • Just because your comment doesn’t show up right away doesn’t mean you’re being censored. When you post a comment it must first go through our filtering software. If it fails, your comment goes into a queue for manual approval.
  • Just because a comment or advertisement is on the site, doesn’t mean WCI endorses it.
  • The above rules are not intended to stop criticism or dissenters, but rather to stop those who are incapable of participating in a civilized manner.
  • We reserve the right to add additional rules as people find new ways to be unethical. Remember you are a guest.

 

*Trolling: a troll is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory,[1] extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the intent of provoking readers into an emotional response[2] or of otherwise disrupting normal, on-topic discussion,[3] often for the troll’s amusement. (source: Wikipedia)