On WSLS.com, we want you to weigh in on our stories. Your participation, whether it’s sharing your personal perspective or engaging in spirited discussion, often raises important questions and plays an important role in making our coverage even better.
For the benefit of our audience, we have community guidelines in place that apply to anyone who uses our website along with any content submitted to us. If you have any questions or concerns about these house rules, send an email to news@wsls.com.
In order to comment:
1. All users must register with WSLS.com.
2. Users agree not to submit inappropriate content, including:
- Any content that violates copyright, trademarks or intellectual property law;
- Any content that is libelous or defames;
- Personal attacks against other commenters;
- Harassing, intimidating, hateful or offensive language;
- Personal information of other commenters such as an address, phone number, or email;
- Advertises a product or service
- Avoid name-calling, attacking commenters instead of their ideas and generally distasteful material.
- Good rule: Criticize ideas, not people
3. Moderators can remove comments that violate our commenting rules.
4. Users can flag material for a moderator to review and possibly remove.
5 Users can be banned for egregious or repeated violations of the commenting rules. Anyone banned can contact ssmith@wsls.com for clarification.
6. Comments written in all caps, unusual punctuation or spacing or generally illegible can be removed.
7. Comments that are off-topic or repeated from other comment threads can be removed.
8. Users cannot impersonate others in the comments.
9. Advertising is not permitted in the comments. Links can be shared, but are subject to removal if they don’t add to the conversation. We discourage, and often remove, self-promotion.
10. You are fully responsible for all submitted content and give us the right to use any submitted content. If you discover content shared violates copyright, trademark or intellectual property, it’s your responsibility to remove the content.
11. We can remove any content at any time without notifying the user.
12. We can ban users at any time without notice. If you feel you’ve been banned unfairly, contact us news@wsls.com.
FAQ
Do I have to register to comment? Yes.
Can I remove or edit a comment? You can edit a comment up to five minutes after you post the comment. You cannot remove a comment once the five-minute window closes. We generally do not remove comments once they’re shared in the conversation unless the comment violates our commenting rules. If you would like a comment removed, you can contact us at news@wsls.com.
I flagged a comment, but it’s still on the site. What happened? All flagged comments are reviewed by a moderator. If you flag a comment and still see it on the site, it was either reviewed and OK’d by a moderator, or still pending review. If it’s urgent, send an email to news@wsls.com.
Why did I get banned? You violated our commenting policies. Bans range from 1 hour to permanent, depending on a user’s commenting history and the nature of the offensive comment that led to the ban. Bans are made at the discretion of moderators.