My discussion guidelines on the Native American Minnesota blog are intended to foster the development of an environment where ideas, information, and opinions are exchanged in an atmosphere of civility, trust, fun, and respect. It is best if you bring a spirit and language of inquiry with you when you visit and restrain your desire to only promote a point of view that is already formed.
General Behavior, Tone
Be responsible, be respectful, and be within the law. We assume you do not need a laundry list of no-nos to know what is covered by that. However, we do have two unusual guidelines in this area.
- Avoid sarcasm
- Avoid addressing a person indirectly when disagreeing with them.
Here is an example of both:
“Waldo seems to think that all our problems would be solved if we would only embrace his wisdom.”
These two behaviors are probably more responsible for online discussions degenerating into nasty places than outright flaming or namecalling. You may think this is overkill, but you will just have to live with it if you want to participate here.
There are other ways that ‘tone of voice’ can inhibit good conversation, of course. Intimidation, subtle put-downs, innuendo, joking-on-the-square, etc. can all be deployed in sophisticated ways, deliberately or not. If in doubt, contact me first to get some feedback before you post.
Persistent and Unique Identity
Be who you are IRL “In Real Life.” Do not impersonate anyone else. It may be cyberspace, but in this instance, it is just like the neighborhood where you live, or the organization where you work.
I only allow you to post anonymously (rare) if I think your comment is genuinely helpful but would cause problems for you and/or others for your name to be published. However, you still need to verify your identity with me via phone or email. Depending on circumstances, I might allow your comment to remain or I might ‘moderate’ it (temporarily remove it) immediately until I can verify your identity.
Illegal Activities
Do not engage in them here. ‘Nuff said.
Content Standards and Ownership
Post only what you own. 99.99% of the time, what’s needed is not your formal publication-type writing but the conversational writing from your brain that travels through your computer keyboard to the blog. Conversation, please, not lectures.
Your Words are Public
I might highlight your comments on the blog. Or quote you on a radio show/podcast. Or package up your comments with the comments of others into a document for others to review. Reporters/bloggers might quote you. Most discussion comments are/can be archived on the web so anyone can read them and search engines can index them.
Not for Commercial Use
The comment threads here are collegial in nature, the opposite of a mall or flea-market. If you might financially benefit from your comment, it is probably inappropriate. When in doubt, ask. Otherwise, keep the promotional stuff elsewhere.
Enforcement and Intervention
I have a virtual dungeon full of tools, tricks, and techniques at my disposal to mete out to offenders. I will try to find the punishment to fit the offense, but this is not a court of law nor high school, so do not expect perfect consistency.
Currently, the policy is to allow comments to be posted immediately instead of ‘moderating’ them, ie, reviewing and approving. (First time commenters require that I manually approve the comment, as this is a method for preventing comment spam.)
If you post something that, in my opinion, violates our guidelines, my approach will usually be to:
- Select the “MODERATE” option to temporarily remove your comment from the discussion thread/public view. This retains the original, which is important for me and for you.
- Post a public comment of explanation, eg, “Waldo, I’ve moderated (temporarily removed) your comment because of the guidelines re: sarcasm. Please try again, and if you need the text of your original, contact me and I’ll email it to you.”
Why the public intervention?
- Because comment threads can be subscribed to via RSS and email, they are IMMEDIATELY distributed. No matter how fast I might try to be in moderating the comment, many people will have seen it.
- A public intervention is a great way for blog visitors to learn what’s acceptable and what’s not. My intent is not to embarrass you, but unless I say something publicly, everyone will wonder what the hell’s going on.
That’s it! Let me know if you have suggestions on how to improve these guidelines.
Griff Wigley
Moderator/Project Leader, Native American Minnesota
