Letter from the editor: How we moderate comments
September 28, 2022
Here at The Oakland Post, we recognize the importance of sharing different viewpoints and serving as a platform for campus discussion. However, we ask that you post in accordance with our newly adopted commenting policy. We welcome civil discourse from all viewpoints.
The following policies apply to the comment section attached to each article published on The Oakland Post’s website. Any questions or concerns can be directed to [email protected].
The Post will not publish a comment if it:
- Is libelous or defamatory
- Is obscene, pornographic, sexually explicit, or vulgar
- Violates a person’s right to privacy
- Violates any local, state, national, or international law
- Contains or advocates illegal or violent acts
- Degrades others on the basis of gender, race, class, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or other classification
- Is predatory, hateful, or intended to intimidate or harass, or contains derogatory name-calling
- Contains advertising
- Contains a solicitation of any kind
- Impersonates others
- Is in poor taste or is otherwise objectionable
- Includes personal attacks
- Includes discriminatory language
- Includes inflammatory language
- Includes spam posts (including self-promotion, posting of affiliated or referral links, and PR pitches)
- Gives the appearance of legal, medical or financial advice.
In addition:
- No more than 4 comments from a single user will be accepted in a 24-hour period
- Excessive comments on the moderation policies of The Oakland Post will not be published
- Comments can be no longer than 200 words.
Comments are either approved or rejected, and are not edited by The Oakland Post.
It may take up to 24 hours for your comment to appear in the comment section.
Comments will close on an article 72 hours after it is published.
Violating any of the above policies will result in comment removal and may result in a suspension or ban from The Post’s comment section.
The editorial board has the final say of what’s appropriate.
The Oakland Post and oaklandpostonline.com take no responsibility for the views expressed in user posts, which do not necessarily reflect the views of The Oakland Post or oaklandpostonline.com.
For future reference, the comment policy is also posted on our website under “More.”
Alarmed Faculty • Sep 29, 2022 at 10:56 PM
So does Glenn have to approve of everything you publish now, or just the comments?
C. Lauper • Sep 29, 2022 at 10:53 PM
What if we devise clever pseudonyms for the president and her chief of staff? Can we criticize them then? Or is that still a “violation?”
Joe Jones • Sep 29, 2022 at 10:07 PM
Wow. OSI must have really scared you. We don’t really need another Pravda. If you want to maintain the readership levels your predecessors worked so hard to build, could I suggest abandoning this poorly crafted policy and re-committing to actual journalism?
Naomi V. • Sep 29, 2022 at 12:03 PM
“Is in poor taste or is otherwise objectionable”
The subjective and vague criteria in this one essentially allow you to delete any post you want to, simply by saying you don’t like it. It makes all the other stated limitations redundant, and is nothing short of declaring that you will be employing Marxist-tier censorship.
That may not have been your intention, but that is where you have landed.
I would like to see all of the arbitrary and subjective judgments removed and/or replaced with concrete and objective limitations, or else just be open and honest about your intention to control the direction of the conversations in the comments section via censorship. You can’t have it both ways though, which is why virtually every news site out there has eliminated the comments sections entirely.
yousef • Sep 30, 2022 at 10:52 AM
I know right! I like the OP because i could engage in the comments section with the author and people. if they start censoring the comment section arbitrarily how are readers supposed to interact? Doesn’t the OP just turn into a one-sided blog at that point?
I get removing spam or swearing, or illegal speech (libel, defamation, incitement to violence, threats, fraud, etc) but get rid of the objectionable and inflammatory “standard”. As a Christian i find blasphemy and fornication objectionable, as a muslim one might find criticism of the prophet objectionable (or abortion). One mans truth is another mans heresy.
So what are you going to do Gabrielle? Continue to censor comments (already censored one on this article) and drive OP into the ground or make your comments censorship policy more clear?
Alumni - 2013 • Sep 28, 2022 at 5:44 PM
Who decides what is hateful or discriminatory?
Liberalism only survives with censorship.
yousef • Sep 28, 2022 at 10:38 AM
OU Community,
I believe this policy is in direct response to me and my opinions on certain articles. Here is my opinion.
Gabrielle,
1. “Is in poor taste or is otherwise objectionable” and “Includes Inflammatory language”
what does this mean exactly? Does this include espousing an opinion contrary to the author? Including presenting views or opinions that are unpopular with the OP? (It is my opinion the OP has a hefty leftwing slant on their editorial board)
2.”Excessive comments on the moderation policies of The Oakland Post will not be published”
This is likely from my complaints with the OPs “moderation” policy has little to do with moderation and rather has more to do with suppressing unpopular opinions.
3. “Comments can be no longer than 200 words.”
Why though? when the OP publish slanted opinions how do you expect a reader to refute the opinion and start a meaningful dialogue? Cant people reading the comments section just scroll past longer comments?
4. “Comments will close on an article 72 hours after it is published”
A convenient way to shut down a dialogue on an interesting or contentious article.
Word count is 192