Commenting on The BFD

The BFD is a RESPECTFUL forum for opinions.

Everyone is offered the opportunity to comment BUT this is a privilege that can be taken away.

You are welcome to comment on The BFD posts if you abide by our “Ten Commandments“.

If you don’t abide by the commandments a moderator will delete your comments. If your comments need to be deleted regularly, or you intentionally break the commandments, or your break is considered serious, your commenting access may be denied altogether.

The golden rule of commenting

Each comment should:

• be on the topic of the post
• add information, a point of view or a contribution of some substance and
• be respectful and do no harm to others.

The Ten Commandments

1. Comment on the topic

Comment only on the topic raised in a particular post. The only exceptions are “General debate” in the morning, “Backchat” in the evening and any other post that specifically invites general comments.

2. Be truthful and keep it legal

• Don’t tell lies or create or spread gossip.
• Don’t break or risk breaking court suppression orders. Don’t guess, speculate or link to other sites that breach suppression. If your comment results in legal action against The BFD you will be made a co-defendant.

3. Keep your language clean and respectful, including your username

• Don’t exhibit trolling behaviour and don’t brag about trolling elsewhere.
• Don’t put other people down. Don’t swear, including abbreviations (eg FFS). Don’t use inflammatory language (eg “you righty **nkers”). Don’t use disrespectful language or nicknames that are not in the The BFD dictionary (eg Gweens, Liabor, Twitford and ragheads). Don’t use a “clever” technique that attempts to bypass this commandment (eg B I T C H).
• Don’t criticize, draw attention to or correct another commenter’s spelling, grammar or punctuation.
• Don’t have a username that is intended to offend, champion a cause or otherwise be inflammatory.
• Don’t make a personal attack or threaten to kill, harm or otherwise injure anyone, even in jest or with “clever” language.
• Don’t bring your ill feelings, anger, fights – public or private, vigilante intentions or bad history against others, including other websites, to The BFD.
• In the once-a-week “Comedy corner: Non-PC jokes” post “naughty and offensive jokes” are okay but it’s not open slather; this commandment still applies so apply your best judgement.
• If in doubt, leave it out or use wording that you know will be acceptable.

4. Keep your images clean and respectful

• Take care with your avatar and any photos, cartoons or other images posted. These must also be clean and respectful. No nudity, no mutilation, no corpses, no sex or porn (simulated or not), no wounds and be careful using images of children.

5. Add value

• Your comment should provide information or express a point of view that discusses the contents of the post or another commenter’s statement or point of view. Don’t post short “empty” or “zero-calorie” comments, such as “I agree” or “Me too”.
• Don’t cut and paste material from another source as your comment. Post a link, perhaps a snippet, and add your own point of view or information.
• Don’t repeat a comment you have made in one post, or something essentially the same, in another post.
• Don’t copy a comment here that you have already made on another website, even if that website refused to publish it.

6. Don’t be greedy

• If you are regularly responsible for more than a third of the comments on a post, or you regularly comment on more than two-thirds of the posts most days a week, then you need to get a life and allow other voices a chance to shine through.
• If you have a lengthy rebuttal, or an article is about you or an area where you think you have expertise, you can submit a guest post for consideration as a “right of reply”.

7. Respect the moderators

• Don’t do the moderators’ job. By all means, guide new commenters to this “Commenting and moderation” policy page but never act as though you have any authority.
• If you see someone appearing to break the commandments, alert the moderators by clicking on the “Flag as inappropriate” option, found to the far right of the line on which the poster’s username appears, and select “Targeted harassment”.
• DON’T REPLY to the commenter. If you reply, you risk being considered part of the problem. (Note that a “Vote down” can be used to indicate that you simply don’t agree with a comment.)
• Don’t comment on moderation or on using the Disqus block feature.
• Don’t argue with the moderators.

8. Act like a guest

• Consider the site the same way you would consider someone else’s home. You are a guest not an owner.
• If our editor or one of our writers seems to break any of the commandments that does not make it acceptable for you to use the same wording or expand on an inference or judgement.
• Don’t “test the waters” to see what you can get away with.
• Don’t make personal comments about the moderators or any other BFD personnel but by all means discuss the topic of the post with them if they submit a comment.
• Don’t promote without prior approval: don’t use a comment to promote any business or other enterprise, whether commercial or not for profit. If you want to promote something or someone via The BFD click on “Contact” and find the appropriate email address to discuss your options.

9. Use the correct channel for making contact

• There is ONLY one place to go if you have an issue with commenting or moderation, after first reading all of the Ten Commandments and the moderation material below, and that is The BFD’s volunteer HELP DESK.
• Put your Disqus username in the subject line of an email to the help desk and include a link to one of your comments if you know how to.
• Please do not contact The Editor Juana (SB) or other The BFD personnel directly about comments, commenting-related issues or moderation as those matters are not their responsibility.

10. Edit your comments correctly

• If you edit a comment for spelling, punctuation or grammar, please don’t say so.
• If you edit for more than this, ie adding, removing or changing the content, you must indicate this as part of your edit. Not doing so may cause your access to commenting to be withdrawn.