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.

In an effort to provide a great experience and be welcoming to everyone, Washington County Insider will not publish comments and reserves the right to remove posts on social media/Facebook that doesn’t adhere to the guidelines below.

  • 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 the 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.
  • 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.

*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)