Rules of discussion

Below the rules are given for discussion in AGW Observer blog. The purpose of these rules is to ensure that discussion stays polite and on-topic, and also that discussion stays within limits of laws.

Violations of these rules are handled individually. Possible consequences of rule violations are public or private warning, placing violator to moderation queue, blocking posts containing violations, or removing commenting rights of the violator. If rules are violated repeatedly regardless of warnings, commenting rights are removed. Interpretation of the rules is done by owner of the AGW Observer.

1. Information given with comments

– Name or alias given in comment must be according to good taste and not offensive.

– E-mail address given with the comment must be working address of the author of comment. E-mail addresses given with comments are not given to third parties.

– Any links given with comments must not lead to inappropriate web sites (such as porn sites).

2. Staying on-topic

Comments must deal with the issues in the article you are commenting.

3. Courtesy

Comments must be made with courtesy. Insults are not allowed. This applies also to third parties – insulting of people/instances outside discussion (such as climate scientists) are not allowed.

4. Appropriateness

Contents and language of comments must be appropriate and suitable for anyone to read. No cursing. No tasteless pictures. No links to pages with inappropriate material.

5. Copyrights

Laws concerning copyrights must be followed. When referring to writings of others, it is not allowed to copy the whole text or large passages without permission from the author. It is allowed to quote referred texts in reasonable amounts.

6. Privacy

Revealing personal details of other people without their permission is not allowed, unless information in question is already legally available in public. Copying e-mails of other people to comments is not allowed without permission from e-mail author.

7. Advertising and spamming

– Commercial advertisements are not allowed without permission from the owner of AGW Observer. Same goes for off-topic websites.

– Making posts with similar content to several comment threads is considered as spamming and is not allowed.

8. Writing on behalf of others

Writing on behalf of others is not allowed. Is someone has something to say, they must do it by themselves. Especially writing on behalf of persons, whose commenting rights have been removed, is not allowed.

9. Saving bandwidth

Avoid including large images to comments. If there is a need to refer to a large image, give link to the image instead of including the whole image. Not everyone has fast Internet connection. Small images are ok.

10. Maintaining discussion

– Making one provocative comment (or giving one provocative link) and subsequently not participating to discussion (this is known as “hit and run”) is not allowed.

– Relevant questions must be answered in reasonable time, just like usually happens in a civil discussion.

11. Use of aliases

Each commenter should use only one alias with comments. If there is a need to change the alias, it is to be announced clearly.

12. Disturbing behavior

Any disturbing behavior not explicitly stated above will also be intervened. If something is not specifically mentioned in rules above, it is not necessarily allowed.

13. Moderation

If commenter is not happy with the moderation of discussion, it is not to be complained publicly, but commenter needs to contact the owner of AGW Observer privately.

14. Rule additions and changes

Rules will be added or changed when needed.

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