The following text serves as the official discussion policy for users of Interlochen Public Radio’s social networking tools. It is adapted from a similar policy from our network, NPR.org. All participants in ipr.interlochen.org story/blog commenting are required to follow these rules. Every website has its own rules. If you break ours, don't be surprised if we block all or part of your comment. We don’t want to waste a lot of time policing comments, so if your comment offends the policy in any way, the entire comment may very well be left unpublished, or later deleted.
IPR reviews comments to comply with this policy. Please allow up to 24 hours for publication. If you see a comment that you think violates this policy, or if you have another concern related to the policy, send an email to ipr@interlochen.org. Please include a link to the story and a reason why you think the comment offends this policy. Decisions often run a fine line. In general, we lean toward openness.
Let us say first that we encourage people to comment on our site using their real names. We’re trying to keep discussion on ipr.interlochen.org civil, open and smart. We think using real names allows for more human interaction.
If you can't be polite, don't say it. Of course, we don't want to stifle discussion of controversial issues. Some topics require blunt talk, and we're not always going to agree with each other. Nonetheless, please try to disagree without being disagreeable. Focus your remarks on positions, not personalities. No personal attacks, name calling, libel, defamation, comments about someone's mother, hate speech, comparisons to notorious dictators - you get the idea. And under no circumstances should you post anything that could be taken as threatening, harassing, bullying, obscene, pornographic, sexist or racist.
Don't use obscenities - even if the word in question is often used in conversation. We're not going to list the words we object to; you know what they are. Remember, this is a public forum and we want everyone to feel comfortable participating.
Anything you post should be your own work. You're welcome to link to relevant content and to quote limited amounts from other people's work with attribution and any associated copyright notice and consistent with "fair use" principles of copyright law. But that doesn't mean you can copy and paste wholesale.
Please stay on topic. Think of it this way - if you hosted a book club meeting at your home, you wouldn't want someone to show up and insist on discussing reality TV shows.
Rambling is the kiss of death. Keep your comments to 200 words or less. Generally, anything beyond a few paragraphs had better be very, very interesting to the larger community. We reserve the right to edit for brevity, clarity and other purposes.
Please respect people's privacy. We love to learn about new and interesting individuals, but most people will not be happy to have their phone numbers or e-mail addresses published. Please do not share another's contact information through IPR’s discussion threads.
Feel free to share your ideas and experiences about religion, politics and relevant products or services you've discovered. But this is not a place for advertising, promotion, recruiting, campaigning, lobbying, soliciting or proselytizing. We understand that there can be a fine line between discussing and campaigning; please use your best judgment - and we will use ours.
Do not "feed" the trolls. We encourage community members to report abuse by trolls. But we also ask that you not engage with trolls in the comment threads. Reacting to their provocations is exactly what they want. If we see you feeding a troll, we will remove both the troll's comments and your responses.
We appreciate the news tips members of the public send us. However, IPR reserves the right not to publicize rumors, allegations, conspiracy theories and other information which we know to be false or unsubstantiated. Be yourself - and not someone else. Don't post anything on the site posing as someone else. Impostors, look elsewhere for kicks.
Please don't use public forums for individual communications. Most of our stories a link (in the byline at the top) for sending individual messages to a reporter/host. Similarly, if you have comments about IPR coverage or policies generally, please don't use the site discussion threads to air them. For issues regarding IPR editorial content or policies, write to our news director Peter Payette at payettepc@interlochen.org.
You are solely responsible for the content you post. IPR is not responsible for the content posted by its users. We do not and cannot review all user content posted on ipr.interlochen.org. However, we have the right (but not the obligation) to review, screen, delete, edit and/or move any content posted on the site.