Guidelines for posting comments on HOT

HOT welcomes comments on the articles we publish, but not where these go beyond the boundaries of tolerant debate. Moreover, we are legally responsible for what is published on our pages, so we will censor comments which might cause us legal problems. Here are our guidelines. We have recently (in June 2020) added a new one of the maximum length we will accept. Naturally we will be happy to field constructive comments on them (via the contact form).

• Be respectful of others. Strongly held opinions are welcome, but remember, there will always be others who disagree with you. A case is made by arguing for it, not by abusing or being unpleasant to others.

• Stay on topic. Irrelevant remarks will be edited out. Do not misrepresent the views expressed in the article you are commenting on.

• Be concise. Maximum length 350 words. We don’t want mini-articles clogging up the comments columns – and readers probably won‘t read them. If you have a lot to say, we will consider publishing an article by you.

• Express yourself clearly. If you have written something that doesn’t make sense or could be misunderstood, we may ask you to rewrite it.

• Don’t be offensive or obscene. Do not use language that is offensive, inflammatory or provocative; no swearing, no obscene comments.

• Do not post anything libellous or likely to cause us legal problems. We will not publish comments that may be libellous or defamatory, or may constitute contempt of court, or material that may breach copyright.

• No racist, sexist or homophobic comments. No hate-speech, whether directed at religious, political or cultural groups or others.

• Do not post other people’s personal information. If you do, we will remove it. You may give your own phone number or e-mail address and ask other people to contact you, but you do so at your own risk.

• Do not misrepresent who you are. Do not impersonate or falsely claim to represent a third party.

• No spurious promotion. Do not make any commercial endorsement or promotion of any product, service or publication unless relevant to the discussion.

• Only use one name – either your real name or a nickname. We don’t agree with someone using several nicknames and misleading readers into thinking that their comments are coming from several different people.

• Don’t give false information –  If you give a false email contact (emails are required but are not shown on the website), we won’t publish your comment.

Thanks for engaging with Hastings Online Times!