SUMNER NEWSCOW COMMENT SECTION POLICY:

Sumner Newscow will allow readers to post comments on specific articles which are deemed public in nature.

At all times, please use proper manners.

SECTION 1 – RULES FOR OUR READERS

Signed comments are preferred. However, anonymous comments will be allowed provided they adhere to the criteria below:

1-A. Sumner Newscow will not approve any posts that it deems inappropriate, including any posts that are offensive, bullying, defamatory, libelous, infringing, obscene, vulgar, indecent, harassing, hateful, humiliating, misleading, part of a political movement/agenda, invasive to someone else’s privacy, or contains unlawful content of material or deliberate inaccurate information. It is in Sumner Newscow’s sole discretion to determine what content is offensive and whether to remove any content it considers offensive or inappropriate.

1-B. All commenters must provide a valid e-mail address. This e-mail will not be published, and only seen by the moderator. Comments without e-mails will at most times not be published. Fictitious e-mails is subject to the revoking of comment privileges.

1-C. We will also no longer allow derogative statements, signed or unsigned, toward specific Sumner County sports teams or players in which juveniles are involved. Criticism of coaching techniques and contest/officiating controversies will be allowed only at the discretion of the moderator, and if the concerns are of general public interest.

1-D. Sumner Newscow will require signatures on comments of stories that the website considers extremely controversial for which the privacy of individuals are at stake. If it involves individual juveniles, we will pull the comment section unless there is a major public interest. 

1-E. Personal attacks will not be tolerated. Words used as weaponry to marginalize the opposition will no longer be tolerated such as “snowflake,” “Nazi”, and other variations of such words. If you have a counter-point to an argument, please do so with a logical well-meaning response. 

1-F. If for any reason, Sumner Newscow determines that “piling on” is becoming an issue, we will either disable or eliminate comments from a specific story. Please bring something new to the table when commenting and not duplicate information which has already been said. No commenter has the right to dominate a conversation. If he/she submits repeated comments, the moderator has the right to terminate him/her from the conversation.

1-G. All comments must stick to the issue of the story at hand.

1-H. Sumner Newscow reserves the right to delete excessively long comments that take too much time to moderate. Keep it short and simple!

1-I. If we determine that posts for which commenters demonstrate that they haven’t read the story will not be approved. 

1-J. Signed comments will receive preferential treatment and receive more leeway than those that are unsigned.

1-K. Misrepresentation by signing another local person’s name in the comment section is grounds for comment termination rights, public condemnation, and subject to legal action by Sumner Newscow.
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SECTION 2: GENERAL SUMNER NEWSCOW POLICY

2-A.  The comment section will not be allowed for obituaries, police notes, Sumner County Court dockets, and specific stories of crime that are private in nature. We will allow comments on court cases involving public entities/governments and civil lawsuits that affect the public at large. 

2-B. It is also Sumner Newscow’s sole discretion to ban a user from posting on this website, and applications created or administered by Sumner Newscow for a pattern of inappropriate postings or as it deems necessary.

2-C. Sumner Newscow will not protect the identity of the individual making comments on this site if the subject involves legal consequences. IP Addresses will be turned over to law enforcement authorities if such requests are made. We protect news sources. Commenters are not news sources.

2-D. Sumner Newscow will not take responsibility for comments that are used to defame others through means for which the website cannot possibly know that such information was used for that purpose.

2-E. Anonymity will be disallowed for matters of economic development or capitalistic ventures which could affect the negotiations of business partners and Sumner County/City officials.

2-F. Comments are the owner of those making the comments and not Sumner Newscow.

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SECTION 3: MESSAGE TO OUR READERS

3-A. It is our contention that the comment section in its current format allows for public dialogue and provides protection from those who may not be able to convey a legitimate public message without retribution from adversarial family members, employers, neighbors, or political movements provided that they abide by the rules listed above.

3-B. Those who wish to see the comments pulled from a specific story must demonstrate why they are in violation of the rules listed above by sending their concerns to the Sumner Newscow administrator at sumnernewscow@gmail.com.

3-C. Comments will not be pulled solely on the basis of a political position of the posts’ author, who has a legitimate public concern or information. However, they will be pulled for violation of the rules above, or by pure rudeness. 

3-D. Unintentional inaccurate information is not a basis for deletion if the author of the post legitimately feels that way.

3-E. Public officials and/or news sources who attempt to withhold public information from an upcoming news story, because of this website’s comment section policy, will be dutifully noted in the story by the author of the article.

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Comments made by posters do not reflect, nor have ever reflected, the opinions of Sumner Newscow administrators, its employees, or its sponsors.