A Reminder About Our Comment Guidelines

Gentle Readers,Periodically it is useful for me to step in and remind people about the norms we have here at >Rockville Central when it comes to commenting. It’s been a long time since I did that last.

While we are an online site, and we look a lot like a “blog,” we’re actually something a little different than that. Rockville Central is a civic space that happens to exist online. We’re more like a big, informal civic meeting. So some things that are typical on many blogs we just don’t think have a place here.

Over time, I have distilled it all into a few simple guidelines:

1. Try to only write what you would say to someone’s face — this is a civil space, not a bathroom wall [UDATE: fixed erroneous "not"]
2. If you disagree with someone, write about their ideas — not about them
3. If you are angry, express that — but don’t go overboard with hyperbole
4. We are neighbors, so please think twice before you post as “Anonymous” or “Concerned Voter” — saying who we are promotes accountability for our words
5. My bias is to let most comments stand but comments that cross the line will be deleted — in extreme cases I’ll close comments on a certain post or take other actions
6. Patently offensive comments will be deleted — swiftly and without notice

Think of these guidelines as our comment policy. They are not rigid (except for that last one).

Since we redesigned Rockville Cenrtal, comment activity has picked up dramatically. With that increased activity has come some increased emotion. By and large this is good and just shows that we need places to talk about difficult issues. But sometimes people have been getting pretty close to that line I talk about above.

So I thought it would be a good time to remind people.

The “anonymity” issue is one that I get a lot of questions about. I am trying to strike a balance between ease of use and accountability. So I don’t have a hard and fast rule. In fact, I change policies over time based on what I feel are the needs of the space. Sometimes I clamp down and make people “register.” This has the effect of slowing down commenting because some people find it hard to navigate that system, but it does usually get the tone of things back on track. Most of the time, though, I keep it pretty open.

And of course I recognize that there are legitimate reasons for posting anonymously (in the cases of whistle-blowers or people who would be in danger if their identity were known). I also recognize that some people are just more comfortable staying anonymous, so in general I don’t go around yelling at people just because they don’t want to say who they are — I just try to remind folks periodically that this is a place where you can be public.

Today’s “policies” won’t necessarily work tomorrow. These are guidelines and they can shift over time.

One last thing. Remember this is a volunteer effort and we try our best. We’re not trying to build notoriety or throw bombs — we’re trying to provide a community benefit by opening up this space and keeping it open day-in, day-out.

If you have questions, concerns, comments, or criticisms, please feel free to email me directly.

Or, of course, add to the comments below!

(We have a long history of concern over comments, like most online spaces. Two good articles that give insight into our specific history are here and here.)

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