A return to civil discourse

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As promised, The MV Times is bringing back the online comment section, after a respite over the holidays and a review of our policies for posting online.

As we have stated in the past, the dialogue had descended into a place we felt was not healthy — similar to the vitriol we’ve seen across social media and on national news — and it was time to reflect and try to rein it in. We believe that community media provides an important place to exchange ideas on the challenges we face, and we know that those challenges are only growing more intense.

But in order to have healthy dialogue, we need both a culture of respect and some appropriate guardrails. After your input, for which we are grateful, as well as input from our staff and Island leaders in the faith, civil rights, nonprofit, and education communities, we have what we believe will help us ensure there is a place for free speech, free of hate and vitriol. 

We also consider this an evolving process. We have done our best to remove some of the more offensive comments that have come to our attention. If you see something that we missed and should come to our attention, please let us know. We have also begun to form a small advisory group that can give us guidance when we need it. We are creating this group from a broad spectrum of the Island community, and as we draw on their wisdom and knowledge, we will share more about this initiative in the months ahead. If you or someone you know would be interested in helping us, please reach out. 

Of course, as this effort gets underway to improve our comments and the civility with which we discuss important issues on our webpages, we are always willing to hear from you. Send suggestions you may have to our moderator and news editor, Sam Houghton, at sam.houghton@mvtimes.com or editor@mvtimes.com

 

Here are the guidelines that we have landed on:

 

  • All comments will be submitted for review by our moderator.
  • To comment, we ask that you are a paid subscriber to The MV Times, and we are setting a limit of one post per subscriber, per day.
  • Comments will be capped at 200 words.
  • Verifiable names and email addresses are required to post.
  • All comments will need to be grounded in the matter at hand, pertaining to the story the subscriber wishes to comment on.
  • There should be absolutely no threats of violence, and we will not tolerate ad hominem attacks or profanity. 
  • There will be no attacking or criticism of someone for their race, sexual orientation, religion, or gender. Differences of opinion on matters of politics, policy, or approaches to big Island issues, including housing, climate change, immigration, and education will have to be civil and thoughtful to be posted,
  • We are implementing a three-strike policy for commenters who violate these rules. If a poster insistently strikes a tone of disrespect or incivility, or attacks others, he or she will be banned after three warnings.
  • Comments will be shut down on each story after seven days, as has been the policy for many years.
  • If you want to make a comment that is longer than 200 words, or if you are not a subscriber, please feel free to write a letter to the editor at editor@mvtimes.com, and we will review it for publication.

 

7 COMMENTS

  1. Thank you !

    RE: “we are setting a limit of one post per subscriber, per day”

    May I suggest that it be one post PER ARTICLE per day?

    • Please no. A small group of people hijacked the MV Times comment section for years. I don’t want to look at the comment section of every article just to see the same 9 names over and over again. I would like to get a sense of what the community as a whole feels about the subject being reported on, not those same 9 people.

      • One post per subscriber will still have the same people posting every day. One post per week per subscriber would be adequate. Also, should eliminate the name calling and debates among the posters. Limiting the comments to 200 words is an excellent idea.

  2. It is very heathy to have open dialogue.We are at the Mercy of Global Warming. To create energy without Fossil fuels is important.We do not have the option to put ,our head in the Sand and not believe that Wind power ,will be and should be an integral part of the way to help.

  3. THE LETTERS TO THE EDITOR..sell a lot of papers…often they are more-much more- interesting than the actual story-article-editorial-youare taking something good away from your readers and its a shame- Jerry kelly started the Grapevine…some of your readers remember both sides of the story because Jerryknew what was REALLY going on he was everywhere and well liked and respected -there is much you could do to make things better-call me !! tata

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