Comments are posted to SDSU NewsCenter immediately. However, in order to promote an open, respectful and civil dialogue, SDSU NewsCenter moderates comments on news stories. This policy also relates to management of SDSU's Facebook pages, Twitter accounts and other social media platforms.
The responsibility of each of our moderators is to review all comments and delete those deemed inappropriate. We also invite our community members to flag inappropriate comments. Our staff moderators pay close attention to our community's flags, and we review and consider each as it relates to the ongoing dialogue on SDSU NewsCenter.
Moderation, by its very nature, is subjective. We do our best to err on the side of minimal deletions.
Here are our five guiding principles:
(I) SDSU NewsCenter welcomes all users to join our community and to comment and treats all members of the community equally.
We do not discriminate based on the person who is posting, and we never censor comments for political or ideological reasons. We never delete an appropriate comment because we disagree with its viewpoint or ideology, and we never publish an inappropriate comment because we agree with or support its viewpoint or ideology.
(II) We want SDSU NewsCenter to be home to open, transparent conversations in which people connect, discuss, share ideas, and debate the issues.
As a community dedicated to being open and transparent and committed to fostering a vibrant discussion of the issues of the day, we can tolerate frustration, anger, hyperbole, dissenting views or the use of biting humor.
But our commitment to a basically civil tone means we do not allow extravagant or superfluous profanity or speech that is otherwise vile. We use our common-sense judgment to discern between the two and err on the side of openness and transparency.
In this area especially, we defer to the flags left by our users in the context of our growing community.
(III) We are also committed to maintaining a non-toxic atmosphere.
As such, we do not tolerate personal attacks of any kind. We do not allow hate speech, nor do we allow speech that advocates or supports hatred or unlawful violence. We do not allow racism, sexism, homophobia, religious intolerance, or other intolerance. Threats of violence or threats to anyone or any group's personal safety are not acceptable. We do not allow false claims or misleading implications.
We do not allow comments that criticize others based on physical appearances or mental characteristics. We do not allow comments that celebrate the death, illness, or personal loss of any person.
We do not allow the promotion and propagation of conspiracy theories.
(IV) In order to preserve a functional and civil conversation, we do not allow stalking.
We do not tolerate stalking. This includes posting personal information about another community member, pursuing another member from thread to thread in an attempt to harass, deliberately misquoting or lying about another member, copying a username in order to embarrass or harass another member, or unwelcome sexual advances toward another member. We do not tolerate lying about being a staff moderator or about communications with a staff moderator.
(V) Members of the SDSU NewsCenter community deserve to be free from spam, and we do not allow posting the same comment multiple times within one thread or on multiple threads.
We flag and delete all comments containing business solicitations or other advertising of personal interests, blogs, or websites. (A link to a personal blog is fine.)
Spam includes comments that are off-topic. If off-topic conversation inhibits or prevents on-topic conversation, we consider it comment hijacking, and do not allow it. That said, we understand that SDSU NewsCenter's comment threads aren't just about content. They're also about conversation. And in natural conversation, people exchange pleasantries, greetings, congratulations, praise, and other social gestures. So we err on the side of facilitating an open conversation, even when that means permitting limited off-topic comments and conversation. Also in this area especially, we defer to the flags left by our users in the context of our growing community.