Scope

This policy covers comments, moderation and participation on marbleheadindependent.com and in community areas connected to our journalism, including reader comments, community discussions and direct participation on official Marblehead Independent social media accounts when those interactions relate to our published work.

Moderation aims

Marblehead Independent provides opportunities for readers who want to discuss the stories we publish and debate civic issues more broadly. Our aim is to make these spaces inclusive, safe and worth reading, with clear boundaries of engagement for everyone who participates.

We want marbleheadindependent.com to be a place where readers find informed, constructive and intelligent discussion. We moderate with that goal in mind.

Moderation decisions are also informed by context. Our aim is to maintain boundaries without stifling debate.

Community standards

These guidelines are meant to protect conversation, not suppress viewpoints. Participation in our community spaces comes with responsibilities. The guidelines below directly inform our moderation decisions.

1. Be clear, and assume you may be misunderstood

Text can be a clumsy medium. Tone, sarcasm and humor do not always travel well on a screen. We ask participants to make a reasonable effort to be clear about what they mean and to keep a reasonable tone, even in unreasonable circumstances.

2. This is our platform, but the conversation belongs to the community

We want these spaces to be welcoming for intelligent discussion. Readers can help by reporting comments that appear to violate these standards and by contributing in ways that make conversation more useful, informed and inviting.

We see moderation as a shared effort to keep discussion constructive.

3. Keep it relevant and engage with the topic

Comments should relate to the article, the issue under discussion or the conversation taking place. Off-topic comments may be removed in order to keep a thread on track. Comments that are merely dismissive of the topic at hand may also be removed.

Questions or complaints about moderation should not be posted in comment threads. Those should be directed to us privately.

4. Debate and dissent are welcome; personal abuse is not

You may disagree strongly with our reporting, with another commenter or with a public official. You may not use our platforms for personal insults, ad hominem attacks, persistent trolling, baiting, abuse or harassment.

We moderate behavior, not viewpoint. The key to keeping Marblehead Independent inviting and useful is to focus on informed discussion of issues, not attacks on people.

5. Criticism is allowed. Misrepresentation is not

We will distinguish between constructive criticism and misrepresentation. We may remove comments that knowingly or recklessly misstate what our reporting says, falsely attribute motives to our journalists as fact or misrepresent Marblehead Independent, its staff or contributors in ways that undermine fair discussion.

6. No hate speech or identity-based attacks

We will not tolerate racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia or other forms of hate speech, or comments that could reasonably be interpreted as such.

We recognize the difference between criticizing a government, institution, organization, policy, belief or public official and targeting people on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, sex, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, age or other protected status.

7. Consider the impact of your words

We understand that people often feel strongly about the issues discussed here. But we may remove comments that a reasonable person would regard as offensive, threatening, intimidating or demeaning.

Please respect other people’s views and beliefs and consider your impact on others when participating.

8. We may intervene when conversations turn into flame-wars

We do not want to shut down strong disagreement. But if a thread descends into repetitive bickering, hostility, threats, bad-faith escalation or toxic back-and-forth that crowds out useful discussion, we may redirect, curtail, close or remove that thread.

We may also remove clusters of comments that have clearly degenerated into fighting rather than discussion.

9. We will remove content that creates legal risk

We will remove content that may place Marblehead Independent in legal jeopardy. This includes, but is not limited to:

• potentially libelous or defamatory statements;
• unsupported accusations of criminal, unethical or abusive conduct, especially against private individuals;
• contempt of court or other unlawful interference with legal proceedings;
• copyright infringement; and
• publication of private or identifying information in ways that may be unlawful or unsafe.

10. No spam, self-promotion or disguised commercial activity

We will remove comments that are obviously commercial, self-promoting, propagandistic or otherwise spam-like.

This includes:

• advertising or solicitation;
• repetitive posting of external links without meaningful engagement;
• coordinated attempts to push an agenda without adding substantively to the discussion; and
• commercial or political actors presenting themselves as ordinary individuals in order to influence conversation deceptively.

Additional standards we may enforce

In addition to the guidelines above, we may remove comments or restrict participation for the following reasons:

Privacy violations and doxxing

We may remove comments that disclose private addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, personal documents, school information, family details or other identifying information about someone in a way that is intrusive, threatening or unnecessary.

Impersonation and deception

We may remove comments or restrict accounts that impersonate another person, misrepresent identity in a deceptive way or attempt to manipulate discussion through coordinated or misleading behavior.

Protection of private individuals and minors

Because local journalism often involves people who are not public figures, we apply extra care when comments target private residents, children, students, victims, witnesses or people involved in sensitive school, health, housing or family matters.

Comments that might be tolerated in a broader national forum may still be removed here when they unfairly target ordinary members of the community.

In short

• If you act with maturity and consideration for other users, you should not have problems.
• Do not be abusive, threatening, deceptive or needlessly inflammatory.
• Criticize ideas, institutions, decisions, reporting and public actions. Do not attack people.
• Help make these conversations thoughtful, relevant and useful, and they are much more likely to stay open.

Moderation approach

Participants who seriously, persistently or willfully ignore these standards may have their posting privileges withdrawn across Marblehead Independent community spaces.

This is not a step we take lightly. But we want to maintain an online experience that reflects our values and supports constructive discussion, and we reserve the right to make moderation decisions we believe advance that goal.

We may remove comments

If a contribution appears to breach these standards, it may be removed in the interest of keeping our community spaces safe, relevant and inviting.

We cannot edit a user’s comment to change only part of it. If any portion of a comment is judged to violate these standards, the entire comment may be removed.

If a comment is removed, replies to it may also be removed automatically or manually. Subsequent comments that explicitly quote, restate or continue the removed material may also be removed.

We may warn, restrict, suspend or ban users

Depending on severity, pattern and context, we may:

• leave a comment up;
• reply or redirect;
• remove a comment;
• issue a warning;
• temporarily suspend participation;
• close or curtail a thread; or
• permanently ban a participant.

Severe violations may result in immediate suspension or removal without warning, especially in cases involving threats, hate speech, doxxing, impersonation, repeated harassment or serious legal risk.

Our litmus test

Before removing a comment or restricting a participant, we ask:

1. Is this comment engaging with an idea, article, institution or public action, or is it attacking a person?
2. Would we make the same decision regardless of which side of the issue the comment supports?
3. Does it contain abuse, harassment, hate speech, a threat, a privacy violation, impersonation, legal risk or spam?
4. Is it contributing meaningfully to the discussion, or is it derailing, misrepresenting or inflaming it?
5. Is this a one-time lapse in tone, or part of a serious, persistent or willful pattern?

If a comment is sharp but still about facts, ideas or public actions, it will usually remain.

If the problem is the manner of engagement rather than the viewpoint being expressed, we may remove it.

If the conduct is severe or repeated, we may remove the person from our community spaces.

Official social media participation

These same standards guide how we manage participation on Marblehead Independent’s official social media accounts when readers reply to, tag or otherwise engage with our journalism.

Our staff may respond to criticism, clarify facts and correct misinformation, but we will try not to escalate personal conflict or use official accounts to humiliate people.

We reserve the right to hide, delete, restrict or report replies and participants on social platforms when conduct violates these standards or makes meaningful discussion impossible.

Questions about moderation

Questions or concerns about moderation decisions should be sent to wdowd@marbleheadindependent.com. Please do not use comment threads to dispute moderation decisions.

We will review concerns in good faith, but because Marblehead Independent is ultimately responsible for what appears on its platforms, moderation decisions are final.

Note about community content

Views expressed by commenters and participants in community areas do not necessarily reflect the views of Marblehead Independent, its staff or contributors.

Our rights and responsibilities

Marblehead Independent is a privately operated publication. We reserve the right to moderate, restrict, close or remove comments, threads and participation privileges when necessary to protect readers, staff, sources, subjects of coverage and the overall quality of discussion.

We aim to apply this policy consistently, thoughtfully and with common sense. Our goal is not to punish people for having opinions. Our goal is to host a community space where people can participate productively, vigorously and safely.