Community Guidelines

DEFINITIONS

Article — A news article originating from an authorized, outside source
Author — The creator of a particular Discussion
Categories — Terms used to logically categorize Discussions
Comments — Personal remarks and replies posted on the Site
Community Guidelines — The terms of service for the Site
Discussions — Conversation topics posted on the Site, based on an Article
Featured Image — The photograph associated with an Article
Mediators — The peacekeepers of the Site
Members — The members of the Site
Owners — The owners of the Site
Site — CA News Forum (https://ca-news-forum.com)
Spam — Primarily unsolicited advertisements or promotions
Targeted Harassment — Continuing to badger another Member after being asked to disengage

DISCLAIMER

This Site is intended to facilitate conversations about current news articles in a civil environment. Our goal is to accommodate respectful discourse between Members. All  Members must comply with these Community Guidelines, which are enforced by the Owners and Mediators. Members who fail to comply with these terms of service may have Comments deleted and, where appropriate, may have their privileges revoked temporarily or permanently.

The Owners and their successors and assigns are not liable for any errors or omissions on the Site, or for any loss or damages suffered as a result of anything appearing on the Site. Any information or views provided on the Site are current as of the date indicated, and are subject to change without notice. Any content provided on the Site is for informational and entertainment purposes only, and does not constitute any financial, legal, medical or other advice. Where such statements are based on information provided by third parties, they are not guaranteed to be accurate or complete. Any photographs used are for illustrative purposes only. The Owners are not responsible for anything posted to the Site by third parties, and make no representation as to the accuracy or completeness of information contained in such material. The views expressed on the Site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of the Owners or Mediators, who are not responsible or liable for anything posted by the Members.


RULES OF ENGAGEMENT

1. Threats of bodily harm against anybody will not be tolerated, nor will comments encouraging self-harm. Such behaviour may result in immediate and permanent loss of Member privileges, so please find other ways to express your frustration.

2. Personal attacks or insults directed at other Members, Mediators or the Owners are not allowed. Instead, try to offer a sage rebuttal to what you disagree with — we’re all here for the debate, after all. At least, we should all be here for that.

3. Targeted Harassment is defined on CA News as the continued inferred badgering of another Member after having been asked to disengage. This includes following a Member from one Discussion to another to continuously post replies with malicious content, slurs, epithets, ridicule, mockery, put-downs and/or name-calling. Our commenting system does not currently include a blocking option, so Members who have been asked by others to disengage are expected to comply with those wishes or face possible temporary revocation of Membership privileges or worse.

4. Insults against politicians and celebrities are allowed, provided they don’t break rules 1 or 2 — that’s part of the territory with being a celebrity. On the flip-side, Members are certainly encouraged to sing the praises of those whom they admire — sending out a few positive vibes can’t hurt.

5. In lieu of quoting significant portions of text from a particular source, please post a reference link with your own commentary added instead. You can add a link to any comment by selecting the word(s) you wish to add the link to and clicking on the link icon that’s found with the text styling and other options at the bottom of the comment entry form.

6. Comments are to be posted in English, with exceptions for occasional common, non-English phrases. This site does not currently include the software required to provide instant translations from English into other languages or vice-versa. If this technology becomes available to us in the future, this rule may be revisited.

7. Images depicting explicit nudity or sexual behaviour are not allowed.

8. No spam, or promotions of any kind are allowed unless pre-approved by the Owners. As per the definitions listed above, this would include comments containing links to products or services with the intent (actual or inferred) of driving business to those sites, as well as any sites the Owners may consider to be commercial in nature.

DISCUSSION POSTING GUIDELINES

Any Member in good standing who has an account may assume the role of Author to share a Discussion based on a news Article by clicking on the Share an Article button in the header and filling in the required fields on the posting form. Each Discussion shall refer to one single news-related Article and must include the following items:

a) The Article headline, copied and pasted from the source.
b) The link to the Article.*
c) A Featured Image from the Article (where available).
d) A choice of one or more appropriate Categories.

Approved sources for articles include media outlets, news aggregators* and video sites such as YouTube, Rumble and TED. Articles behind a hard paywall or which require a subscription or login are not allowed since not everybody will have access. Social media sites, personal blogs, corporate websites and letters to the editor are not allowed as sources. Should the source Article not include a photograph, the discussion Author may choose a substitute photo for the Featured Image, providing that it relates directly to the subject matter and context of the article and does not politicize or add personal commentary. For example, memes are not acceptable as Featured Images.

Owners and Moderators reserve the right to make edits to posted Discussions without notice, including correcting or modifying the headline, adding or changing a Featured Image, or closing and removing duplicate Discussions. A Discussion is considered a duplicate if it links to the exact same article or video as that of a previously posted Discussion. Articles about the same subject but from different news sources and journalists are not considered duplicates. Note that the Owners and Mediators reserve the right to disapprove Discussions which do not comply with our Site’s values or Community Guidelines without notice.

* When posting a Discussion based on an Article from a news aggregator site, the Article link should be to the media outlet that first published the Article, not to the aggregator.


MEDIATION

This site has one or more volunteer Mediators whose task it is to review and approve new Discussions and enforce the Community Guidelines, and it’s often a thankless job. They can come from various countries, backgrounds, genders and beliefs and provide their services at various times during the day, when their schedule permits. No single Mediator can possibly review all of the comments posted on the site each day, so we rely on overlapping schedules to cover as many as possible. Mediators and Owners may, at their discretion, edit or remove inappropriate Comments with or without an explanation and, if circumstances warrant, pursue disciplinary measures including the revocation of Membership privileges. Abuse of Mediators or Owners will not be tolerated in any form, so if you are asked to move on, please do so. Note that our Mediators are Members, too, and as such you’ll often see them commenting in threads and conversing with other Members.


FLAGGING

Members are encouraged to help bring Comments which they feel contravene the Community Guidelines to the attention of Owners and Mediators by flagging them. If you hover over a particular comment, you will see a small red flag appear on the right side. After clicking it, select the appropriate reason for flagging from the choices provided in the drop down menu. Those who flag Comments remain anonymous to other Members and to the Mediators — only the Owners will see who flagged a Comment and why. Once the reason for flagging has been reviewed, the Mediators and/or Owners will take the action they feel is appropriate under the circumstances. Members are asked to use this feature sparingly and are encouraged to try to work out their differences with other Members before flagging becomes necessary. Members should avoid excessive flagging and keep in mind that it is not meant as a means of silencing the debate. 


DISPUTE SETTLEMENT

The interpretation of rules can be subjective and Mediators are authorized to use their best judgement, but Members may not always agree. Members who would like to dispute the closing of a Discussion, the editing or deletion of a Comment, loss of privileges or to lodge a complaint about the conduct of a Mediator or Owner may send a private email to the Owners at canewsforum@gmail.com.  Where applicable, please include the ID link of the Comment being disputed. This can be found by hovering over a Comment and looking for the identification number (e.g. #101) to the left of the red flag. Clicking on this value will copy it to your keyboard and when you share it by email, it provides a link to the Comment in question.

Members who find themselves in prolonged disputes with other Members should also consider sending us an email, rather than allowing negative feelings and frustrations to fester. The Owners consider this community to be a family — particularly the Members who have been with us for years — and just as in all families there are occasions when a disagreement or quarrel can get out of hand. When just flagging a comment won’t suffice, we’re here to try to help our Members get along with each other. Reach out.


SPAM

Spam is primarily defined on this Site as advertisements or promotions for the purposes of selling goods or services and is not allowed. Such posts or Comments will be immediately deleted and the consequences for those violating this rule may include being temporarily or permanently banned from CA News. Other Comments that may be classified as spam would be those posted in a language other than English as well as Comments that are excessively repetitive or relate to Rule 3 above.