Comment Guidelines
By commenting, you agree to be bound by the commenting guidelines presented here:
This policy is subject to amendment or modification at any time to ensure its use is consistent with its intended purpose as a limited forum.
By having membership on CalCoastNews and commenting on this site, you grant CalCoastNews.com non-exclusive perpetual rights to publish your comments in any way we (the site) see fit, including deleted comments.
Under provisions of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), children under the age of 13 must have signed written permission from a parent or guardian to post comments or participate in a discussion.
Commentator’s must provide valid e-mail address and be authenticated through this site, a live id provider (such as Google, Facebook, etc), e-mails and other methods as required.
Members of the public are limited to one (1) account for the purposes of commenting on CalCoastNews.com. Members caught violating this provision may have any of there accounts: deleted, disabled, consolidated and renamed, as we (the site operators) see fit.
Failure to abide to this comment policy may result in: comment deletion, account banning (both temporary and permanent), IP banning and, in the case of criminal activity, law enforcement notification.
Implementation of this policy is at the sole discretion of the site operators (CalCoastNews.com).
Comments do not constitute legal or official notice for any purpose.
Comments must be related to the subject matter of the article or related matters. First time Comments are held for moderator approval before they will appear on the page. Comments containing any of the following will be deleted:
1. Vulgar, obscene, offensive, threatening or harassing language;
2. Promotion, fostering or perpetuation of discrimination on the basis of race, creed, color, age, religion, gender, marital status, status with regard to public assistance, national origin, physical or mental disability or sexual orientation;
3. Comments determined to be in violation of federal, state or local laws;
4. Sexual content or links to sexual content;
5. Promotion or advertising of any business or other commercial purpose.
6. Content for conducting or encouraging illegal activity;
7. Information compromising the safety, security or privacy of the public or public systems; and
9. Violation of a legal ownership interest of any other party.
The comments and opinions posted here by members of the public, on this site do not reflect the opinions of the CalCoastNews.com its employees and contributors. CalCoastNews.com does not control or warrant the accuracy or reliability of any information contained in submitted comments.
We reserve the right to cheerfully edit or delete comments for any reason.
The above guidelines are also contained in this site’s Terms of Services.
You want plain English?
Moderator’s Guide To Comments on CalCoastNews.Com:
On CalCoastNews.com we have articles, on these members can submit comments and opinions.
Please do not hijack comment threads. We understand that discussions naturally take twist and turns and when the issue at hand involves your precious snowflake or issue.
Even so, we will discourage comments that disrupt a logical flow of a thread – for example, writing about legalization of pot or yelling about Wal-Mart after an article on, say, hard money lending.
We frown on personal attacks on comment authors or editors, especially by “anonymous” accounts.
We will delete profanity and other slimy language. Ad hominem attacks, reductio ad Hitlerum, repeat posts, off-topic rants, personal attacks, flogging dead livestock, hateful language or spam and the like will be deleted.
It’s not OK to attack someone’s appearance, name, race, economic status etc
Comment authors who post personal information to expose the real names of any anonymous commenter will have their comments deleted and risk account deletion and user banning.
Do not submit comments containing large amounts of text from any other source, an excerpt and link is customary and acceptable.
Please do note write comments when intoxicated.
Our writers and moderators alike love your thoughtful responses to less well-informed commenters.
We really dislike whining on a thread, like, ‘This isn’t news’ or ‘Where’s the meat?’ or ‘Why aren’t you writing something important?’ ‘ Learn to spell’ The editors care what you think, but only to a point.
If you have a comment about a story? Post it in the story, accounts are free. Want to complain to the management? please send an e-mail, our list of staff is on the sidebar of most site pages.
Repeated violations of our policy can result in the violators comments going to the moderation queue or comment, account deletion and user banning.
Would you like to write a rebuttal or other opinion piece? Please write to tips@calcoastnews.com Please note, opinion pieces require your real name and contact info for verification purposes.
The editors decide what stories are written. For the most part, commenting is an opportunity for readers to quickly react to our stories via a community conversation.
The investigative nature of our stories inspires some and anger others which, of course, is echoed in the comments that accompany our stories. In fact, in the years since the debut of CalCoastNews.com, we celebrate the community, the commenting has grown in a way we never anticipated.
CalCoastNews.com is not a free-for-all, nor is it a democracy. If you would like to comment without restraint in whatever form you wish, we respectfully suggest you start your own website or blog.
The majority of our investigative news stories and news briefs are the result of tips from our readers, posted comments, and/or information we find through acquaintances we run into at the best cheese and wine shops in town. Oh, and saloons, yes, the saloons. Please remember to tip your editors at tips@calcoastnews.com or contact the moderator at moderator@calcoastnews.com.
