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The FAQs about CA News Forum

• What is CA News Forum?

  A growing number of news media outlets are either heavily moderating their comment sections or don’t allow comments at all. This site is primarily a news discussion forum where Members can discuss current international news events. We moderate lightly to encourage respectful discourse but we do not censor based on one’s point on the political spectrum.

• Where did it start out?

  We started out on Disqus Channels around the fall of 2015 in response to the Toronto SUN deciding to close down its comment section. Our early articles were all from that media outlet but over time we allowed posts from other sources. Still, back then we had a list of approved news sources and would actively delete those that weren’t on The List. Over time, we relaxed a bit and allowed more sources, but still excluded others. Seems like we may have had some control issues back then.

• Can we discuss Disqus?

  We had a great time while the Disqus Channels program was active, it was really easy to attract new members due to the interconnectivity, and there were dozens if not hundreds of channels for people to explore and share with friends. Over time, however, Disqus experienced more and more problems, largely due to the toxicity of comments on some of the less regulated channels and how that might impact their corporate profile.

  Some time around August of 2019, Disqus announced the end of its free Channel Program when an estimated 500 channels were handed a 30-day eviction notice. Some channel owners had already seen the writing on the wall and pulled together stand-alone websites before Channels went dark, although they were often ridiculed for bailing early on Disqus. Others (like us) were left with a month to create a site — still using Disqus as the comment platform — and prevent our membership from wandering off to greener pastures. Many of us owners had no experience in building websites and suddenly we were thrown into the deep end to sink or swim. So began the crash course (read, “master class”) in web design.

• What about the Owners?

  CA News was founded by Duck Season (“DS”) a feisty and opinionated Disqus member who was proactive in creating an alternative to news site comment boards. With the help of the first cadre of moderators (including IRWeasel, one of our current Owners) people were recruited from the Toronto SUN comment section in its dying days — and quite successfully at that.

  DS was an ornery fellow who had little patience for rule breakers and goodness knows he had some rules. That caused some discord, but eventually everybody settled in and, for the most part, followed the rules. Those who didn’t faced banishment, either temporary or permanent, depending on the offence.

  CA had two sister channels from common roots, Breaking News and The Religion Channel. Where CA was Canada-centric, Breaking News hosted international articles and The Religion Channel was obviously configured for a specific target audience. Originally, all three channels were under common ownership but over time that became too much of a burden for DS and his moderating team.

  DS actually had a life outside of Disqus, and eventually the decision was made to split the channels, with CA News being adopted by David McNamara, Ofru and IRWeasel.  Breaking News and The Religion Channel merged to become BNR… Breaking News and Religion and ownership was assumed by TUS — The Unknown Sleeper. TUS was one of those Disqus Channel owners who saw what was coming before the big announcement was made, and he had a site up and running before Disqus even shuttered the program. A commendable achievement, to be sure, especially to the rest of us owners who started the mad scramble in August 2019.

• Building a website is easy, right?

  After frantic searches online we determined that WordPress was the easiest platform for people with zero experience to build a site with. Especially enticing was the fact that one could purchase “themes” that are basically the interior design of the site. Back then most seemed to be turnkey-style with customization often limited to a few colour and font choices. Pretty rudimentary, but it allowed us to pull together a basic site to keep the momentum going. The cookie-cutter look wasn’t for us, so we started looking for better options. It was probably the fourth theme that we tried that ticked all the boxes and provided extremely detailed control over layout and appearance. That theme is from Themify and they’ve been great to work with. What they offer is really for designers — graphic as well as web — as just about every aspect can be configured and customized. There was a very steep learning curve to be sure, and lots of support tickets to sort out issues, but they always respond quickly and come up with solutions. Special thanks to Amit, Hassan, Nick and Rajesh at Themify.

• Hang on, there's more about Disqus?

  Oh yes, there’s more to the Disqus story. It seemed a no-brainer for CA News to use Disqus as the commenting platform on its fledgling website. It was a simple plugin and with a few clicks it was up and running and the old crew could move seamlessly to commenting on our site. All that had changed was the décor, so all seemed fine and dandy to begin with. Over time, however, problems started to crop up. Some Disqus users found themselves under some form of cyber-attack, where their vote score would suddenly start plummeting, often into considerably large negative values. Complaints were lodged, assurances were given but the problem persisted, literally for years. Disqus users were getting rightfully annoyed.

  As if all that wasn’t bad enough, Disqus implemented some algorythms based on user scores. Those with sufficiently low scores couldn’t comment unless they were specifically whitelisted by site owners. That had a negative impact on user activity for many sites, including CA News. The problem was, once a user was whitelisted, their activities couldn’t be flagged by the community — in essence, they had a form of diplomatic immunity. This was extremely frustrating and challenging for site owners. Eventually, we felt we had no alternative but to look for alternative solutions. We tried a couple of plugins but it was wpDiscuz that really caught our attention. Like our theme, wpD is very configurable and offers a host of addons that improve the online experience of Members. We shut off Disqus and activated wpD and we’ve been pretty happy ever since. Like all things WordPress there have been issues along the way, but for the most part we are very much satisfied.

• What news sources are allowed on the forum?

  Our Members can post articles from pretty much any source so long as the content doesn’t contravene any of our rules. Here are just a few of those sources…

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  
• Why are the photos so big on my screen?

  The site now uses “full-width” article photos on Discussion pages — no more boxed layout. These photos resize themselves based on the width of your browser window. If you make your window more narrow, the size of the photo will scale down, and vice-versa. Once you’ve found a good width you don’t need to worry, most of the links on our site open into a new tab, so you won’t have to resize the browser window over and over.

• Hey, just how many profile images do I have here?

  Members on CA News have three possible profile images. The first is mandatory, the Public Avatar, which is what you see next to people’s names in the comments. You can change your Public Avatar at any time by clicking on Change Public Avatar in the Member Account Controls above. Avatars should be 96 x 96 pixels. Members who don’t upload their own avatar image will be assigned the CA News default avatar instead.

  You can also customize your Profile page with a Profile Photo and a banner Cover Image as well, but these are optional. To set either of these images, go to the My Account / Edit Profile menu item on the site’s header and on your page you’ll find the Change Profile Photo and Change Cover Image options. The best size for your Profile Photo is 150 x 150 pixels and for the Cover Image the best fit is 1300 x 225 pixels.

• Why do I need to be a Member to comment here?

  Commenting on CA News is limited to registered Members. This allows us to keep spammers at bay and offer our Members an enhanced online experience as well as a sense of community. In fact, many of our Members have been with us since day one and have become an online family. We host a daily Off Topic discussion, where Members can simply hang out and talk about things other than the news, as well as The Jukebox every Friday afternoon to usher in the weekend with Members’ favourite music videos. You’ll find links to these specialty pages under the Featured menu. Membership on CA News is free and those who remain in good standing are privileged to comment and share articles they think will be of interest to other Members.

• I can't get into my old account. Should I register a new one?

  If you have already been a Member on CA News but aren’t sure if your account still exists, try the Forgot Password link first. If your email address is registered, you’ll receive a reset link. If you’ve changed your email address, we can help you update your account settings so that you won’t lose your content and comment history. Please contact us by email for assistance.

• Privacy Policy

  INTRODUCTION

  CA News Forum is a private online discussion forum where Members in good standing can converse with each other and share a common interactive experience. The site is intended for use by adults over the age of 18. In order to participate on this site, whether to post comments or create discussions for others to converse about, you will need a Member account. There are several reasons why we require user accounts: Firstly, all comments posted on this site are stored locally and are attributed to a particular user account. Secondly, user accounts allow us to assign and, if necessary, revoke user privileges on the site. Thirdly, it helps us to protect our Members from any attempts by unscrupulous third parties to spoof their identities for nefarious purposes. Finally, it helps us prevent spam discussions and comments from being posted, which leads to a better online experience for you and our other Members.

  Comments are hosted locally on this site using wpDiscuz. Please be aware that our site is publicly viewable and that anyone may search for, see, use, or re-post any of the comments or content you post here. CA News Forum has no control over what third parties may do with such material. As such, we strongly discourage the sharing of any personally-identifiable information such as your real name, your email address or personal photographs in comments. Those who choose to ignore this advice do so at their own risk.
  
  
  PURPOSE OF THIS POLICY

  The owners of CA News Forum provide this Privacy Policy to inform you about our policies and activities regarding the collection, use, disclosure and protection of your personal information, and your rights regarding the handling of that information. Please read this policy in its entirety so that you understand your rights.

  This Privacy Policy is subject to periodic amendments, additions, changes or modifications. The revised Privacy Policy will take effect on the date and time it is published on this site. By continuing to use CA News Forum, and by registering for a Member account, you agree to the terms of this Privacy Policy and any amendments thereto. Each time you use the site, the then-current version of this Privacy Policy will apply.

  The owners of this site are internet users and we value our privacy online. We extend to you the courtesy of respecting your privacy as well. We are extremely selective about the information that we collect about you through the use of this site. 
  
  
  PERSONAL INFORMATION COLLECTED

  When you visit our site, we may collect basic, “non-personally identifiable information” and “personally identifiable information” about you. We collect this information generally for functionality, to troubleshoot and improve the site, and to provide you with the best possible online experience. We will never under any circumstances sell, trade or rent this information to third parties, for any reason. Your information will only ever be used as described in this Privacy Policy. This is our solemn pledge to you, our Members.

  1. Non-Personally Identifiable Information
  Your IP address is a unique string of numbers that identifies each computer using the Internet Protocol to communicate over the internet. It allows websites to exchange packets of information with your computer and to track your activities on that particular website, as we do here on CA News Forum. Your IP address allows us to detect problems with our server, and for us to administer the site. In addition, this Non-Personally Identifiable Information is compiled and analyzed on an aggregate basis by services like Google Analytics, to help us gauge things like online traffic and user experiences. By using this website, you agree to the use of your IP address for these purposes.

  Q&A: Exactly what does your IP address reveal about you? Through services like Whois, a website owner can use your IP address to determine your general location and the name of your Internet Service Provider (ISP). Your IP address is not publicly linked to your name or physical address, and your ISP will not provide such information to any third party other than law enforcement, if compelled by law. To reiterate: Your IP address does not reveal to us who you are or where you live. Your IP address is visible to the site owners, but not to the moderating staff or to other community Members.

  Q&A: What is a VPN? For those users who prefer to be extra cautious, the use of a Virtual Private Network service, or VPN, will actively mask your true IP address and related information from even the owners of this site. Be aware, however, that the use of a VPN can prevent some websites from loading properly. That is, unfortunately, beyond our control.

  2. Personally Identifiable Information
  When you sign up for a Member account on CA News, you will have to provide us with your desired screen name and a functioning email address. For this purpose, we encourage the use of an anonymized email address that does not include your actual name and it costs you nothing to register for one. We will never ask you for your real name, your home address or your phone number, that’s more information than we need.
  
  
  OTHER INFORMATION

  Cookies
  Cookies are text files which contain small bits of data relating to your interactions on a particular website. On CA News Forum cookies are used to keep track of your current session. Turning cookies off may prevent the site from recognizing that you are signed in, which can interfere with your ability to post comments and author discussions. As such, you should always enable cookies for our site. Cookies reside on your own computer and may be deleted manually by you or automatically after your session ends, depending upon your browser settings. Cookies typically expire and get deleted after one day.

  Notifications
  Our commenting system can advise you when you receive a reply to one of your comments by sending you a notification to your CA News profile or by sending you an email push notifications. The notifications include a link that, when clicked, will open a browser window or tab and scroll down to the comment that was replied to. This feature is enabled manually by activating the notification bell next to the Post Comment button prior to posting your comment. Clicking on it will turn it blue, indicating you are subscribed, and clicking on it again will turn the bell back off. This option allows you to subscribe to notifications relating to that one particular comment only and must be done before you post your comment.

  You also have several other notification options available to you:

  • Subscribe to receive notifications whenever someone replies to any of your comments on a particular discussion page, which is easier than subscribing for notifications for multiple individual comments.

  • Receive notifications whenever someone posts any comment on a particular discussion page, whether they are replying to your own comments directly or not.

  • Follow another user to receive notifications any time they post a comment anywhere on our site.

  • Follow a particular comment by another user to receive notifications any time someone replies to that particular comment.

  Once subscribed, you can unsubscribe any time, whether by clicking the Unsubscribe link in the notification email you receive, or by going to your Subscriptions tab to manually remove one or more subscriptions.

  Embedded Content
  Discussions on our site often include embedded content such as articles, images and videos which link to external, third party sites. Embedded content behaves the same way as if you are visiting the source website. These linked source websites may collect data about you, use cookies, allow third party tracking and monitor your interaction with the embedded content, including your activities if you log in to the source website. Please review the Privacy Policies of these source websites so that you will be aware of what they may do with your personal information.

  Your Rights
  You may at any time request that we delete your user account, which will remove any personal information we retain about you as well as all of your comments and any discussions you may have authored. Removal of your account will rescind all your privileges on the site and you will not be able to post comments or discussions.