By posting a comment on InFocus, you are agreeing to abide by these guidelines.
Part of the purpose of our existence is to cultivate serious and useful discussion. In order to facilitate such wholesome and respectful interaction, we’ve drafted the following five guidelines.
1. Stay on topic.
The InFocus comments threads are provided for discussion of the posts themselves. While some extraneous discussion is inevitable and acceptable, attempts to hijack threads for discussion of topics not directly related to the post are not appropriate.
2. Post your own material.
If you want to make an argument, please put it in your own words. Cutting and pasting large portions of text is inappropriate in this setting.
3. Links must be supplemental and thoroughly relevant.
If a link provides relevant, supplemental information to a substantive comment, by all means, please post it. Links posted in place of substantive comments are not appropriate and will be deleted. Comments which use InFocus as a platform for agenda-promotion will be deleted.
4. Be concise.
Long comments tend to daunt readers and kill discussion. So try to make your point within a reasonable space. A good guide is to try to keep comments to about 200 words or fewer.
5. Use your real name.
We prefer that you use your full, real name in the interests of accountability. However, if you don’t feel comfortable doing so, using your first name or a real nickname is acceptable. Requiring the use of real names is intended to assist commenters in conducting themselves in a way that is in line with how they conduct themselves in other contexts.
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InFocus went almost six years without commenting guidelines so we have no intention of enforcing these guidelines in a heavy handed way. That said, commenters who demonstrate belligerence, insensitivity, or an unreasonable spirit may be banned, have their comments placed under moderation, or have their comments deleted without warning.