RULES OF THE ROAD

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and STLtoday.com want your participation in our blogs, forums and story comments. At the same time, we can’t have objectionable material on the site. You should also know that we don’t edit or review posts in advance, so we expect your help in policing them using the "report post" links available.

Moderators of story comments, blog comments and forums have the right to edit, delete, move or close any comments at any time. These guidelines clarify our practices and provide an explanation of what content may lead to message deletion or user bans. We're trying to be a little informal here, but our formal Terms of Service governs.

Now, for the guidelines.

1. We use the Living Room rule (adapted from blogger Shel Israel). If you come into our home and behave rudely to a guest, we'll ask you to stop. If you continue, we'll ask you to leave. Basically, the living room rule means that you should behave as if you're in our living room. Don't monopolize the conversation. Be civil. Don't attack people personally.

2. Pretend your mom is in the room. Messages containing intentionally misleading or false information, defamatory content, threats, verbal abuse, harassment, obscenity or personal information about other individuals are not allowed. And that includes avatars. Offensive avatars will be deleted.

3. Remember, everyone here is a person, just like you. Treat them as you'd want to be treated.

4. No advertising. Keep your posts commercial-free: Advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes and solicitations are unacceptable.

5. No spam. No multiple, disruptive, meaningless or repetitive messages. Messages considered spam, trolling or flaming (as determined by the moderator) can be deleted without warning or explanation.

6. Be yourself. Don't impersonate others.

7. Fair Use. Do not post entire articles into comments. This is a potential violation of copyright laws. Post a brief abstract of the material and a link to the complete source. If you are unsure how much to use, please simply post a link to the material.

8. Don't whine (adapted from Eric Zorn of the Chicago Tribune): Comment control on a our site is not "censorship." Shooing someone from the room is not the same as trying to silence him. Moderation is allowed. And yes, it can and will be subjective. Anyone who follows the first seven guidelines won't have to worry about No. 8.

A couple of other notes:

New to forums? We want our forums to be a welcoming place. Our staff is happy to help users who are unfamiliar with online forums. If you are new to commenting or forums and have a question, please e-mail d2@post-dispatch.com.

User Accounts: Registered user names must follow the same rules as remarks posted on forums. Any user accounts considered objectionable or created for the purpose of spamming or promoting commercial interests may be deleted. Deliberate or continued abuse of user accounts could result in a ban of the user’s IP address.

What to do if your account has been banned: If you try to log in and receive a message that you’ve been banned, do not immediately open another user account and continue the inappropriate behavior. Such action could result in a permanent ban. Instead, contact the administrator and find out what caused the sanction. We may or may not reinstate your privileges after such a contact.