Today, redbankgreen introduces a new approach to comments moderation.
We’ve created something called the Back Alley. This is where comments we consider thuggish and/or cowardly will be steered.
You’ll see reference to the Back Alley when you go to the comments posted below an article. Clicking on “show Back Alley comments” brings up all comments, with the Back Alley ones highlighted.
Readers will have the option of designating, at a click, whether they want to view all comments posted under an article or to exclude those tagged as Back Alley comments. This default setting can be changed at any time.
Why institute this? Because complaints about cowardly postings are the top category of concern we hear about, and frankly, we agree that the Internet has become polluted with the toxic spew of those who use anonymity as a hiding place from which to launch attacks. We think individual publishers should take responsibility for the runoff from their sites.
The Back Alley is a solution that we think strikes a reasonable balance: letting readers decide whether they want their commentary filtered or unfiltered.
As before, we will NOT delete or send to the Back Alley comments because we disagree with them or solely because they contain words your mother told you not to use.
Rather, comments will be evaluated according to an admittedly subjective standard of what constitutes abuse, either of other individuals or of the forum itself.
This policy is aimed at encouraging commenters to show themselves. Comments that include identifying information about the author will get more consideration than those that don’t. Anonymous and pseudonymous postings will still be allowed for what we’ll call customary and civil discourse.
Defamatory, unwarranted or unsupported attacks on an individual or group, whether implicit or overt, may be deleted. Critiques of public figures (elected officials, prominent persons and people in the news, for example) will get more leeway than those about nonpublic figures, but don’t take that to mean anything goes. We aim to be fair to everyone who uses redbankgreen.
Threats will be deleted. We also reserve the right to delete comments from posters we believe use multiple or misleading identities, those who use the site to promote commercial interests, disclose (or purport to disclose) someone’s sexual preferences, reveal a cop’s home address or, frankly, any reason whatsoever.
In fact, to make the lawyers happy, let’s just say that we reserve the right to remove any comment for any reason. We also have the right to ban comments from specific Internet Protocol addresses.
If your post gets removed or sent to the Back Alley and this displeases you, feel free to rephrase it and repost it in accordance with this policy. If you have any questions, email us at the address below, using your real name. Be aware that we will not discuss this policy with people who refuse to properly identify themselves to us.
Does our policy call into question our commitment to free speech? We cherish the First Amendment and don’t do this lightly. But in the end, we think our reasonable-person standard of moderating comments is consistent with what you’ll find in much of civic life, as well as at many other publications, and don’t believe it impinges on anyone’s rights. If you feel truly stifled by it, start a blog. There’s unlimited bandwidth out there, much of it free.
It’s our hope that readers who’ve previously been reluctant to comment will want to join in with those redbankgreen stalwarts who’ve managed to keep things largely civil all this time, and do so by using their real names.
John T. Ward
redbankgreenman
June 7, 2008
