09
Jul
2007
33 Comments
More by this Author

Comments, Posting, and Moderation: Exciting New Guidelines!

by

Free speech means responsibility. Mideast Youth supports free speech. This does not mean that we are required to publish anything and everything on our site.

We recognize that the topics we discuss can be emotional and difficult for many people. When it comes to issues that concern the Middle East, everyone seems to have an opinion. What we are trying to promote is civil discourse, discussion, and debate. In order to do this, we must all accept some general guidelines. Here are the guidelines we propose:

Security-related

1. Remember that many of our authors are citizens of countries that limit free expression. No matter how tempted you are to do so, do not reveal anyone’s identity if they have chosen to remain anonymous. If you intentionally keep revealing a person’s confidential information without their permission, we will not hesitate to take legal action.

2. We will delete threatening comments or posts.


For Posters

1. Many of you write under pseudonyms. We respect that. In the case of Mideast Youth, the pseudonym is to protect you and the people who are connected to you. It should not be used as a cover to make unwarranted attacks on others or to reveal the personal details of others.

2. This is not a “cut and paste” blog. We want to hear your opinions and personal experiences.

3. Show courtesy! We do not moderate posts before they are published, so please exercise responsibility and courtesy in your writing. What does this mean? Support your arguments with evidence. Review your post for sweeping generalizations and attacks against groups of people. You can avoid most of these problems by being specific. Tell stories. Tell us what happened to you and how you felt about it. Be personal. There are enough generalizations out there.

For Commenters

1. Please comment on the post itself. Try to stay on topic.

2. Name-calling does not become you.

3. Threatening comments will be deleted.

4. Disagreements are natural. When you disagree with a writer or commenter, tell us why and provide evidence for your disagreement instead of attacking the idea or the writer.

Moderation

1. Moderators, remember that just because something offends you does not mean that it violates our commenting or posting policy.

2. If you feel that your comment or post was deleted unfairly and that you did not violate our comment or posting policy, please e-mail the administrators. We will review the case and if it’s a legitimate one, it will result in immediate action.

3. Moderators reserve the right to edit comments for technical errors only. Anything else is against our moderator policy; please tell us if one of your comments was edited for no apparent reason or for reasons unclear to you.