Comments and commenter accounts are maintained at the sole discretion of Q Voice News, its employees, contractors, freelancers, and designated agents (hereafter referred to as “Q Voice News”). Comments may be deleted and/or commenter accounts suspended at the sole discretion of Q Voice News without notice. By commenting on the site, you are agreeing to these terms of service.
Commenting guidelines:
Q Voice News appreciates and values the community that comment boards build, and uses moderation to make these discussions more productive for all who participate. To maintain a productive community, our moderators generally hew to the following guidelines, and we encourage commenters who wish to remain a part of this vibrant community to do so, too.
1. Abusive language
Almost everyone (including the editors of Q Voice News) enjoys profanity, and the creative use of it. But, when profanity or other inappropriate language is used toward other people, it can either start non-productive arguments, silence another commenter, or be deemed abusive. Any comments deemed abusive toward other commenters will be deleted and commenters who continue to engage in this behavior will find their accounts suspended.
2. Advocacy or threats of violence
Any comment that threatens violence against others (commenters, subjects of stories, or sources in stories) or advocates that someone be subjected to violence (including that they should do violence unto themselves) will be removed. Commenters that continue to engage in this behavior will have their accounts suspended.
3. Ad hominem insults
If your sole contribution to a discussion is to insult the participants in it, your comments will be removed and your account suspended. It’s unproductive.
4. Racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, anti-Semitism
If your comments contain any of these things or other slurs similar to these, your comments will be removed and your account immediately suspended. This includes comments that smack of veiled slurs (dog whistles) as determined at the discretion of Q Voice News — Please note: We work on the Internet, and we quite likely know exactly what your “subtle phrasing” means.
5. Attacks on editors, writers, staff, moderators, and management
Our staff is no less subject to criticism than those we write about — but there’s a pretty large gulf between criticism and attack. Abusive language, attempts to bully (in comment threads or in any platform, including email and social media) or ad hominem insults aimed at those who work with Q Voice News will not be tolerated and will result in the immediate suspension of comment accounts and/or the deletion of comments. If you have a specific disagreement with a piece of information, have more information on a story that is in a piece or noticed a typo, spelling error or grammatical error that made it through our editing process, a polite email to [email protected] will be forwarded to the appropriate staff member for review.
6. Anything else our moderators, staff, or freelancers deem disruptive.
We wish this could be a comprehensive list, but we’ve been on the Internet long enough to know that there will always be someone who can conjure some offensive thing we haven’t considered. A good rule of thumb is that if you’re writing it to piss someone off, stop.
If you are trying to trump something offensive someone else said, stop.
If the other person “insulted you first,” stop and flag their comment for a moderator and/or email [email protected] instead of replying with another insult.
If the Secret Service would be asking us for your ISP address if they read it, stop. If a little voice in your head says, “The moderators might challenge this,” listen to that voice before submitting the comment.
But we’re not all mean. If your comment account is suspended, we will offer a process for appeal. A suspended commenter can send a polite email to [email protected] explaining that their commenter account has been suspended and they would like to come back to the community. They will receive a response that the suspension is under review.
There is a 3-day mandatory cooling off period during which our staff and/or moderators will determine why the account was suspended and whether, in their judgment, it warrants further review.
During that cooling off period, the suspended commenter will be told, if they doesn’t know, what sparked the suspension. If they want to return as a commenter, they must then acknowledge in the email that they violated our comment guidelines, understand it was inappropriate, and pledge not to repeat it in the future.
Note: Abusive, bullying, or inappropriate emails or interactions on social media sites will end the review process. Each commenter may receive one review; if the account is suspended again, the decision is final.