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Comment Policy

The following text serves as the official discussion policy for users of Boise State Public Radio's social networking tools. All participants in our social networking features, story/blog commenting, and other forums are required to follow these rules.

Social media opens the door for organizations like Boise State Public Radio to engage in new ways with you and fulfill journalism’s primary role – to foster public discussion.  

Boise State Public Radio takes this role seriously. Through the station’s website, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr and more, we encourage you to engage online with us and share your questions, comments and ideas.

Every website, though, has its own rules. These are our rules to participate in Boise State Public Radio social networking features, including discussions and comments. Don't be surprised if we block your comments if you break them.

If you can't be polite, don't say it. We don't want to stifle discussion of controversial issues. We're not always going to agree with each other but please be respectful. Focus your remarks on positions, not personalities. No personal attacks, name calling, libel, defamation, comments about someone's mother, hate speech, comparisons to notorious dictators - you get the idea. Under no circumstances should you post anything that could be taken as threatening, harassing, bullying, obscene, pornographic, sexist or racist.

Don't use obscenities.  That holds true even if the word in question is often used in conversation. We're not going to list the words we object to; you know what they are. Remember, this is a public forum and we want everyone to feel comfortable to participate.

Anything you post should be your own work. You're welcome to link to relevant content and to quote limited amounts from other people's work with attribution and any associated copyright notice and consistent with "fair use" principles of copyright law. But that doesn't mean you can copy and paste wholesale.

Please stay on topic. Think of it this way -- if you hosted a book club meeting at your home, you wouldn't want someone to show up and insist on discussing reality TV shows.

Rambling is the kiss of death. Keep your comments to 400 words or less. Generally, anything beyond a few paragraphs had better be incredibly interesting to the larger community. We reserve the right to edit for brevity, clarity and other purposes.

Please respect people's privacy. We love to learn about new and interesting individuals, but most people will not be happy to have their phone numbers or e-mail addresses published. Please do not share another's contact information through BSPR’s discussion threads or social networking features.

Feel free to share your ideas and experiences about religion, politics and relevant products or services you've discovered. But this is not a place for advertising, promotion, recruiting, campaigning, lobbying, soliciting or proselytizing. We understand that there can be a fine line between discussing and campaigning; please use your best judgment -- and we will use ours.

Do not "feed" the trolls. We encourage community members to report abuse by trolls. But we also ask that you not engage with trolls in the comment threads. Reacting to their provocations is exactly what they want. If we see you feed a troll, then we will remove both the troll's comments and your responses.

We appreciate the news tips you send us. However, Boise State Public Radio reserves the right not to publicize rumors, allegations, conspiracy theories and other information, which we know to be false or unsubstantiated. Be yourself. Don't post anything on the site posing as someone else.

Please don't use public forums for individual communications. You can e-mail through our contact us page. If you have comments about Boise State Public Radio coverage or policies in general, please don't use the site discussion threads to air them. For issues regarding station editorial content or policies, write us through the contact us page.

You are solely responsible for the content you post. Boise State Public Radio is not responsible for the content posted by its users. We do not and cannot review all user content posted on boisestatepublicradio.org. However, we have the right (but not the obligation) to review, screen, delete, edit and/or move any content posted on the site.

Commenting on our social media sites and website means you agree to let Boise State Public Radio use your comments in a variety of ways including on the air.

These guidelines are largely adapted from NPR.