Comment Guidelines
(Updated 9/14/2022)
Welcome to NancyOnNorwalk.
This comment policy has been amended numerous times since we began in October 2012. We have tweaked it and added to it as commenters have continued to push the boundaries of civility and good taste – and, frankly, libel and slander.
Our goal is to provide a forum for information and a healthy exchange of ideas – constructive, informative, entertaining or all of the above. We pride ourselves in providing an online venue where intelligent, mature people can debate, suggest, converse and exchange ideas without wading through the muck found on many sites.
The basics are:
- Be “nice.”
- Use your own full name. Comments submitted without a real name will not be published.
- Stay on topic.
- Use and make comments, but do so thoughtfully.
More information is here.
We encourage:
- Adding information to the post. If you know something we don’t, please do share it!
- Updates. We don’t live in a static world. Updating info helps everyone.
- Opinions: Like, say, noses, everyone has one. Feel free to share yours, but please be respectful.
We reserve the right to modify the rules. Continual violators will be banned from commenting.
Comments represent the opinion of the commenter and the commenter alone. NancyOnNorwalk and Chapman Hyperlocal Media Inc. take no responsibility for opinions or the veracity of statements made by commenters on this website.
More specific comment guidelines
In a perfect world, the next set of items would not be necessary. Unfortunately, not everyone can play nice with others:
- This is something every child in the U.S. is being taught: Do not insult, bully, threaten or harass the writers or your fellow commenters. Continued violators will be banned.
- Offensive, inappropriate or annoying comments – basically, being a troll – may be deleted or subjected to distempering. Trolls will be banned.
- Character assassination by innuendo will not be tolerated and will result in a loss of comment privileges.
- Parenting, physical characteristics, children, marital relationships, interpersonal relationships — other than as they pertain to official duties or documented, proven illegalities — are not public business and will not be allowed and will result in a loss of comment privileges.
- Spam once, you are gone. This means junk comments, promotional copies or attachments.
- Do not ascribe motives to people without proof. It is harmful to the discourse and could create a legal situation.
- Sock puppets – alias accounts created by previously banned commenters or by commenters who are seeking third-party approval the easy way – will be banned.
- Racist, sexist, anti-Semitic, homophobic or otherwise offensive comments will be deleted. Continued violators will be banned.
- Creativity is a wonderful thing, but finding creative ways to try to avoid getting flagged for policy violations is not cool. Comments will be deleted.
- Please don’t include e-mail addresses, physical addresses, or phone numbers in your comments for the purpose of self-promotion, or for the purpose of harassing or publicly exposing the private data of others. Such comments will be redacted or removed.
- The game of trying to guess – or making assertions – about the identities of posters using screen names has gotten old and annoying, and it is most often wrong or unverifiable. Further, it is harmful to the discourse, and potentially libelous. We will no longer allow it. Comments that try to “out” another commenter will be disallowed, and the commenter will be placed on moderation.
- Language, folks. Keep it clean. People of all ages and sensitivities read this news site, and many are offended or should not be exposed to foul, vulgar or crass language.
- Continual posting of erroneous information, especially after having been told it is erroneous, will not be allowed. If your post is deleted for this reason and you feel your information is correct, send us backup information to prove your statements are valid.
- Elected and appointed officials with decision-making power – and candidates asking for votes – must use their real names when commenting on stories.
We make mistakes. We want to fix them.
- We welcome alerts about typos, incorrect names, factual errors, and the like.
- We generally do not correct quoted text.
- Allegations of factual errors will be corrected at the editor’s discretion if verifiable documentation is available.
- Requests for credit or attribution may be honored at the editor’s discretion if verifiable documentation is submitted.
Send an email to [email protected] if you think a comment is offensive or breaks the above rules.
5 comments
Joe Espo February 10, 2013 at 5:14 pm
We appreciate bringing trying to bring sense and sensibility to your blog but please don’t smother it with the PC face pillow. Offensive, inappropriate or annoying comments? According to who’s standards? Sock puppets? You know, don’t you, that all the socks we collectively lose in our basement dryers are dancing around here! All of this is what makes your blog an interesting read and a go-to in the morning after Drudge. We used to have a real, vitally important AND POTENT forum with yourct.com but it died a politically correct death. The post from scopeon didn’t merit redaction; it merited ridicule that could have been demonstrably meted out to your blog’s benefit.
Nancy Chapman February 10, 2013 at 6:41 pm
We thought ScopeOn’s post contained unsubstantiated accusations, which we cannot publish. It wasn’t a matter of being politically correct, it was a matter of being legal.
I appreciate your comparison to YourCT as I realize it provided a valuable social service. I am hoping to emulate that function but the level of disrespect that has been shown in some posts needs to be cut back.
I have also talked to some people who loved YourCT but who are discouraged from commenting by the vitriol and/or superficiality of some of the posts here (and there, I am told, toward the end of its robust activity). They are interested in discussing issues, not a silly back and forth.
LWitherspoon February 11, 2013 at 10:24 am
Good guidelines Nancy, especially regarding sock puppets. The Voice seems to have more sock puppets than actual commenters these days.
EveT July 26, 2013 at 10:37 pm
Good guidelines. I wish they were followed a little more carefully.
Bob Austin October 26, 2018 at 7:49 pm
I have a question about the ballot for this election. The second question on the ballot asks:
“Shall the Constitution of the State be amended to require (1) a public hearing and the enactment of legislation limited in subject matter to the transfer, sale or disposition of state-owned or state-controlled real property or interests in real property in order for the General Assembly to require a state agency to sell, transfer or dispose of any real property or interest in real property that is under the custody or control of the agency, and (2) if such property is under the custody or control of the Department of Agriculture or the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, that such enactment of legislation be passed by a two-thirds vote of the total membership of each house of the General Assembly?”
Can you give me three examples of what types of property these departments might have an interest or custody or control of?
RA