Q: What is the Comment Policy?
A: Community and Commenting Guiding Principles
HuffPost UK has a thriving user community and actively encourages commenting on our stories and blog posts. We are dedicated to this community and strive to maintain a respectful, engaging and informative conversation. Towards that end, we have general guidelines for commenting. If you wish to participate in the community, we ask that you follow the guidelines below and the spirit of the community they seek to create.
(I) If your comments consistently or intentionally make this community a less civil and enjoyable place to be, you and your comments will be excluded from it.
HuffPost UK promotes a receptive, transparent and civil atmosphere for comments and users. Critical, in-depth and intelligent discussions and debates are encouraged and the best of these are highlighted in various ways.
Everyone is welcome and encouraged to voice their opinion regardless of identity, politics, ideology, religion or agreement with other community members, the author of the post or staff members as long as those opinions are respectful and constructively add to the conversation.
However, this community does not tolerate direct or indirect attacks, name-calling or insults, defamatory statements, nor does it tolerate intentional attempts to derail, hijack, troll or bait others into an emotional response. These types of comments may be removed from the community where warranted.
Individuals who consistently or intentionally post these types of comments will be warned and, if necessary, excluded from the community. By submitting a comment to HuffPost UK, you shall be the primary publisher and you will remain liable for your comments at all times.
(II) The community monitors itself - and you can help!
Every member of this community has the power and responsibility to help elevate the level of conversation and remove the trolls who would degrade it. On every comment, you can "Fan and Favorite" (F&F) users who are posting great content, or flag a comment for review by a moderator. Taking these simple actions helps bring great content to the top and removes bad content quickly.
(IV) Be yourself, only yourself, and just one of yourself.
Every person's opinion is valuable and unique. Pretending to be someone else removes that unique value from you or from others. Don't misrepresent yourself or others, spread mis-information, create multiple accounts or "astroturf". If you do, you will make the community a less enjoyable and valuable place to be and will be removed when we see it.
(V) This community is a safe space.
We strongly believe that HuffPost should be a safe space for individuals, groups and their ideas. As such, violent and hostile language or calls for violence and hostility are not welcome here. If you directly or indirectly threaten the physical or mental well-being of a member of this community, or an individual or group who is the subject of an article, you will be removed immediately. If a credible threat is made against an individual or group, not only will it be removed but it is likely that it will be reported to law enforcement agencies and we will cooperate with them to any extent requested.
Personal identifiable information should never be posted to HuffPost comments section. It never turns out well for anyone.
If you see any threats, harassment or personal information trolling please report it quickly.
(VI) If you have comments, we are here and we have real people who read and reply.
If you have complaints, questions, concerns, or just feedback - positive or critical - please get in touch with us here.
Please note if you have a problem opening any of the links in this document, you may send your question, complaint or concern to us via email to: community-support@huffingt