This Week in the Mercury
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Mercury A Blogtown Notification (Now Updated for Your Nitpicky Pleasure!)
Posted by Wm.™ Steven Humphrey on Tue, Jul 28, 2009 at 1:15 PM
Hey Blogtownies!
Apparently there's some confusion about what one can do and cannot do while having fun commenting on Blogtown (and other Mercury pages). SO! Here's an update of the rules of conduct as first laid down back in March in the year of our Lord 2008. It's important to remember that in order for us to not go batpoop insane, we will enforce these rules as we see fit. Think that's unfair? Then you may direct your complaint to the French Internet Police. Thanks, guys!
Howdy Blogtownies!
While we have been very reticent in the past to assign any rules to those who comment on Blogtown (because rules SUCK), there have been a few problems in recent months, and so I thought I would take this opportunity to lay out what is and isn’t allowed in Blogtown comments.WHAT IS ALLOWED: Practically anything. We would never ever censor your comments based on ideology.
WHAT ISN’T ALLOWED:
1) Slanderous off-topic comments. (For example, I write a post about how great the Spice Girls are, and you comment, “Wm. Steven Humphrey gave my dog herpes!!” Which may not be the best example, because I may have actually given your dog herpes. But you get my point.)2) Sock Puppetry. (Or pretending that you’re someone else, when it’s not obvious that you’re pretending to be someone else. For example, I write a post about how great the Spice Girls are, after which you leave a comment using my name claiming, “Hanson is the greatest band in the world and I like to give dogs herpes.” On the other hand, if you decided to use “Rowdy, the Herpes Infected Dog” instead of my name, that would be okay.)
3) Overtly threatening/sexual remarks. (For example, I say “Man, the Spice Girls sure are talented,” and you say, “I’m going to cut your toes off one at a time, feed them to a duck, cram the duck down your throat, wait until you digest it, and then pull that duck halfway out of your ass. Afterwards, I’ll reverse the process, starting with cutting off the duck’s feet.” For a “sexually threatening” remark, substitute “duck’s penis” for “duck’s feet.”)
UPDATE! 4) Excessively offensive/abusive language. (For example, "Sporty Spice is a [c-word], a [n-word], and a [racist and/or homophobic slur]. The word "excessive" is the key term here. If you wouldn't say it to your fairly liberal grandma, don't say it here.)
Anyway, you probably won’t see too many instances of us deleting comments, because there are only a very small number of a-holes who cause the majority of problems. And when we do delete? We’ll take away only the offending part of the comment and leave a reason behind of why it was deleted.
Rest assured you will always have a home at Blogtown to vent and freely speak your mind (even if you decide to disparage the Spice Girls). As always, thanks for reading Blogtown, thanks for being respectful of each other with your smart and funny comments, and if you happen to notice anyone violating the above bylaws, please be a sweetie and either click the "report a comment" link or contact me immediately at steve@portlandmercury.com!
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When is the article that started this shit storm going to get a [ARTICLE EDITED: UNNECESSARILY ABUSIVE LANGUAGE.]?
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Disemvoweling is probably a stronger tool than outright deletion. You guys should look into that style instead:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disemvoweling
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I mean if I say Graham should [EDITED: UNNECESSARILY ABUSIVE LANGUAGE] and [EDITED: UNNECESSARILY SEXUAL LANGUAGE]. How will Graham know if I want to give him an [EDITED: NO YOU CAN'T USE THAT WORD EITHER] after [EDITED: THOSE ONES TOO], or if I'm just paying around and I didn't say anything at all, (other than use too many brackets and capitals?)
And just for the record: Matt Davis is fine. When I start walking and drinking again, I'll buy him one of his fake beers.
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why do you need to delete anything?
who are you protecting?
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For that matter is it OK to say "I bet Posh has a beautiful asshole" or "Matt Davis is an asshole"?
I'm guessing this is all off the board but I want to make sure.
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Or are there more intelligent class/race/equality issues to be discussed here?
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How about:
Wm. Steven Humphrey did not give my dog HIV, HPV, or Goneria. I'm not going to comment on where my dog got the Herpes though.
Is that OK?
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I'm more than a little surprised your legal department vetted this- soon as you start censoring, you're liable for damages. No censorship, and you have a nice safe harbor.
You're just going have to keep tightening rules over and over again until you just shut it down.
P.S. I gave Steven Humphrey's dog guinea worms. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUz9gqLmyQ0
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Your lack of knowledge at how the internet works is slightly staggering.
The base concept is that ISPs and websites are not liable for the content posted by their users as long as they don't have any proactive editing of those posts. They are not legally liable for the content posted therein. They are allowed a reactive editorial stance though. If a company or individual contacts the ISP or website about an IP infringement or a defamatory comment, then they are liable to make the requisite edits.
The speed of the edits and the stance taken by the Mercury staff seems to indicate a proactive editing stance. Therefore they are now liable for ALL posts and not just the ones that they are notified about.
However... this is not to say that there is some hyperactive reader who is constantly reporting "bad" words to the staff so that they can make the edits.
The simple middle-ground is to create a word filter. The administrators create a list of words they don't want and what they'd rather have in their place. This alleviates the burden of editing for stupid words that inflame stupid people. Thus allowing the management to focus in on the people who are saying the really mean stuff.
Or they could just take the simplest and best route and just edit for statements that are actually criminally liable instead of just in poor taste.
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Examples include:
- "good samaritan" laws that protect people providing assistance from getting sued later on
- securities law provisions that protect stock analysts from getting sued if their good faith forecasts don't pan out
- protection from having to pay EPA clean up costs if the contamination was caused by a prior owner of the land and you did a pre-purchase environmental assessment.
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What SHOULD I call him?
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http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a…
for an example. That lawsuit isn't about whether Yahoo could or should remove that profile, (note that Yahoo did remove it in the end,) but about the excessive amount of time they took to do so. They point out that yahoo could be held liable if they'd promised to do so and hadn't, but they never did that. Likewise, the Mercury could be held responsible if they promised to enforce these rules for every comment, but they don't, they just said that they COULD enforce them. It is all kind of silly when you think about it with a non-online example: in Oregon it is illegal to go faster than 70 mph on a public street, and some people have gotten tickets for it. But if someone goes 80, and crashes and hurts someone else, does that automatically mean the hurt person gets to sue the police for not enforcing the law that time? Nope, not at all, we all understand that the police can't enforce every single law all the time, there isn't enough police. It is very simalar for comments on a website, the moderators can respond to "calls", and if they see something inapproprate themselves they can respond, but they don't have to supervise everything anymore than the police can/should...
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p.s. I love Savage and would not want him to change one word.
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-Rowdy, the Herpes Infected Dog
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