StateImpact supports strong web communities and promotes discussion online. To encourage civility and create an environment that encourages participation, StateImpact sites will follow these general community policies:

Comments will be moderated by the site managers and reporters. We will leave up all comments on the substance of the material or news presented, including critical observations, allowing the readers and the author respond to a comment in the open.

In the interest of making it easy for readers to comment, reporters will typically moderate the comments after they are posted to the site.

We believe the strongest communities have engaged moderators. Reporters will be encouraged to jump in and participate in comment threads — directing the conversation, mitigating hostile flare-ups, and keeping the discussion moving forward.

We appreciate the news tips members of the public send us. However, StateImpact reserves the right not to publicize rumors, allegations, conspiracy theories and other information which we know to be false or unsubstantiated.

Moderators reserve the right to take down a comment that:

  • includes personal information (i.e. phone numbers, addresses) of someone mentioned in the comment,
  • is promotion or spam
  • is an obvious form letter or petition from a campaign or advocacy group to encourage an action, like calling your congressman
  • is a personal attack
  • includes profanity, name calling, libel, defamation, comments about someone’s mother, hate speech, comparisons to notorious dictators, etc.