The honeymoon is officially over.
We have been taking the past several weeks to evaluate our online comments and decide the best way to enforce our new comment-moderation policy. Our emphasis during this time has been on deleting inappropriate comments and warning the posters. We have been slow to ban people, choosing to educate and try to change behaviors.
That time is coming to an end. Everyone will start with a clean slate, but we will now be keeping score. If users receive multiple warnings and deletions, they will be blocked from commenting.
We have come up with guidelines to train additional moderators. This will bring more eyes onto the comments and should mean fewer inappropriate posts will get past us. Still, the best moderators are our commenters. There is a "report" link next to each comment. This will flag posts that you find inappropriate so we can take a look.
We will not delete all reported comments. We will look at them and make a judgment call based on our terms of service and the decisions made by our task force.
Not everyone will agree with our decisions, but if this is truly to become a place where people feel welcome commenting, we must set standards. If our commenters want to avoid our judgment calls, the best course is to stay away from gray areas. The angrier the tone, the closer a comment comes to violating our terms of service, the more likely it is to be pulled.
You will find some very opinionated people and some very controversial comments. You will not like every opinion offered. But you will have a chance to respond. Just remember that everyone is entitled to an opinion, and not everyone has to agree with you. Be respectful of differing opinions; it would be a boring world if we all agreed on everything.
Comments under stories and editorials should stay on topic. The comment area under Rants & Raves section is a more open thread. We give much more leeway there to comment on issues not covered in stories or editorials. This is not a chat room, but a certain amount of chatting is tolerated and encouraged. We want you to make connections with other users and have fun.
Not everyone will like what we are doing. Bear in mind this Web site is owned and operated by The Augusta Chronicle . We have the right and the responsibility to enforce our policies.
There are many options on the Web to post comments with no moderation. They are not always very pleasant places to visit. Ours will be.
Joewillie, sorry to disagree but this is not a violation of free speech. This is a private company's site and they can delete our comments or ban us if they want to. They fund it so they are the "boss".
You are still free to voice your opinion on here you just can't call me or anyone else a dumb dumb or an idiot, you can't curse and you can't be racial in your comments (to whites, blacks or whoever). I'm sure there are other rules but those are the things I see most commonly.
JoeWillie, you're complaining about censorship, but your post directly violates one of the rules Sean Moores blogged about recently, the representation of obscenity.
http://chronicle.augusta.com/content/blog-post/sean-moores/2010-02-19/on...
You have the right to accuse us of just about anything you want to, but your comment was removed for that reason alone. Feel free to repost it without that word.
In fact, I will even go so far as to repost it for you below:
President Thomas Jefferson must be rolling over in his grave wondering WHAT HAPPEN TO FREE SPEECH IN AMERICA ??? The Augusta chronicle is violating free Americans first amendment rights to speak their minds and express their thoughts and ideas. THIS IS CENSORSHIP !!! The reason the AC are violating Americans freedoms is blatantly political. The AC owners and editors are extreme right wing, neo-con Republicans and they censor the words and thoughts are other people, especially Democrats who have different views or opposing views and use salty language to express them. Adolf Hilter and the Nazies begin by banning words, then they banned books and burned them. Then the Nazies banned certain ethnic and religious groups. Then the Nazies began gasing and burning PEOPLE. The road called CENSORSHIP lead directly to the gas chambers and the ovens. A word of advice to the proponents of censorship, the weak minded and the weak kneed people. If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen !!!
And to get technical about it, the first amendment only states that the government will not take away your rights to free speech. So the first amendment does not really apply in this case.
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."
All we're doing is removing the comments of people who violate the terms of service of our website. When you signed up to use the website, you agreed to abide by the terms of service. When you violate the terms of service, we reserve the right to remove posts or disable posting privileges. No more, no less.
Well stated Conner. There's no reason why people can't make a point without crossing outside the very loose parameters ya'll've set. (one of my favorite colloquial contractions) I personally appreciate the opportunity to post on a civil site. Now, ya'll get out there and kick some donkey! (which is to say, abuse some Dems)
What are you going to do with the multi-name posters??
"You will find some very opinionated people and some very controversial comments" Corgimom waves her hand widely and jumps up and down, "That's me, that's me, that's me, he's talking about me!"
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