Forum Guidelines

[Admin]

The following are the guidelines for posting on SpeakOhio.com. These guidelines subject to change.


In general, posts accepted for publication should be on topic, respectful in tone and be either educational, entertaining or productive on a social level. Posts containing personal attacks will not be accepted.


Posts that mention a specific individual by name, whether public or private, will not be allowed. Local elected and public officials should be referred to by title. Exceptions may be made when certain politicians “lead” a cause, and identifying them specifically can be of help to the readers.
You can address “a councilman”, “a local politician.” or “our mayor” when discussing issues concerning their public positions.

RATIONALE: In communities of this size, everyone interacts all too often with these individuals and their families. Complaints should be about the person in their elected capacity…not as individuals. If a person has a complaint about an elected official, reasonable expectation would be for them to call that person at his/her office or make an appointment to see them at their office. The public official should feel comfortable that he will not be confronted while shopping at a supermarket for example. While it is also reasonable for a public official to expect complaints in a public forum, those complaints should not be personal. There is a difference between stating a person isn’t doing a competent job as councilman, as opposed to saying “Councilman Smith is an idiot.”


Posts that mention a specific local company or business by name will not be allowed. You can say “An East side restaurant”, “A fast food place near the mall” or “A mega-mart store”. National or Worldwide brands, publicly traded companies or national media can be referenced, if it does not reference a local franchise, or it's local employees or management.

RATIONALE: Local businesses in particular, should reasonably expect that their business will not be directly harmed by an unverified post, by a single disgruntled employee, customer or even competitor. While it is impossible to determine the motive of a poster, it is possible to offer reasonable protection for businesses by disallowing the posting of specific names, especially when referencing a local business.

Mentioning a national chain is acceptable as long as it does not mention a specific franchise or location.

Example: "Wal-Mart is bad because they buy goods from China!" Is acceptable.
Example: "The Wal-Mart on Rt. 5 in Anytown is awful!" Is not acceptable.

Posts directed to a specific user that do not progress the thread will not be allowed.

Not allowed: “WhiteNite go back to your beer and potato chips. You don’t know what you are talking about”
Allowed: “What WhiteNight would want you to believe is that all teachers, all schools are bad. I don’t believe this is the case.”

RATIONALE: All too often threads are detoured by direct confrontation between posters whose writings really have nothing to do with commenting on the original title of the thread. It is frustrating for those interested in the matter at hand. The goal of any post should be to add new information to the subject. Submissions that may “hijack” a thread will not be accepted.

Posts regarding pending litigation must be discussed with extreme caution.
Posts expressing concern or outrage over a crime are certainly valid. Posts attempting to convict an individual prior to a trial with rumor and innuendo will not be allowed. Posts discussing rumored circumstances surrounding a crime cannot be allowed.

RATIONALE: While a visible crime is certainly going to be a topic readers will want to discuss, such discussions must keep the feelings of the families, and rights of those involved, in mind. In legal matters, everyone has a responsibility to protect the integrity of our “system” of justice. That should be extended to our contributors as well.

Submissions should carry a reasonably respectful tone.
Experience has taught us that many threads degenerate simply because responses involve name-calling or are posted in anger. We have the right and perhaps even obligation, to control the “tone” of responses that are allowed.

RATIONALE: The “tone” of responses affects the overall forums. We desire a product that is interesting, informative and even social on some level. An aggressive, negative product is not our overall desire and steps should be taken to prevent that from becoming the overriding nature of the forums.

Thread titles cannot address another user directly or directly confront a person or business.

Our forums are for opinions and discussions. These should not be construed as “chat”. When a thread or a post is directed at a single individual or business, it is not conducive to a “discussion” in the interest of the public at large. Posts should be submitted based on their interest to the members as a group.

Posts will not be allowed that are threatening, abusive, contain obscene language, are intended to promote a for profit entity, or are negative for negativities sake.

This does NOT mean that posts cannot address issues that can be construed as negative. There is a difference between “Pleasantville is a hopeless hellhole that should be bulldozed”, and “ I think the one-way streets in Pleasantville are a big problem holding our progress back.”

Posts will not be allowed that promote local commercial activities.

RATIONALE: SpeakOhio is provided for citizens to discuss local, state and national issues and share their opinions on a wide variety of subjects. Users should reasonably be protected from people attempting to use the service to push commercial activities.

This includes:

Posts advertising new or existing local businesses. Even when and where the business is not explicitly named.

Example: "What does everyone think of the new Pizza place on Main St? Their pie is delicious!"

Posting of Band Dates
We understand that many, probably most, local bands don’t make a lot of money doing what they do. For the most part, it’s about the music, having fun, and experiencing life. It was with this thought that the posts on advertising band dates were allowed at one time.

The problem is that to advertise your band, no matter how little you make, the posts do in fact advertise the business, bar or club, where the band is playing. So this caused us to re-evaluate postings for band dates.

We have decided that we can’t allow bands to advertise their band dates on the message board. It is not possible to determine how experienced the band is, in other words, if they are playing for fun, or if they are more big time and actually making some decent cash. It’s also difficult, if we allow people to post about their band, to stop bars or clubs from signing up and advertising the bands they will have playing.

This rule also includes users’ signatures.

Posts will not be allowed that hyperlink to commercial sites.

RATIONALE: Due to SpeakOhio's popularity and search engine rankings many people will attempt to use SpeakOhio to directly or indirectly to profit from the service and users. This includes so called "referrer links".

Sites which actively ask for donations, promote a service or goods can therefore not be allowed. If linking to an article pertinent to your post which does any of these things feel free to copy the text and source the original material but please do not actively hyperlink.

Posts will not be allowed that actively campaign.

This does not mean that local elections, candidates and issues can not be discussed. This just means that campaigns or people working on their behalf WILL NOT be allowed to actively campaign. This includes:

- Solicitation for donations and/or volunteers.
- Posting of campaign websites.
- Posting of dates for campaign events including "Meet the Candidate" nights (public non-partisan debates are acceptable)