Sheep Central Comment Policy
We welcome comments on our articles but also encourage readers to familiarise themselves with our guidelines before taking the time to submit a post.
We reserve the right not to publish or to remove without notification comments which we feel are in breach of these guidelines.
- Real names: We aim to maintain a high standard of debate and believe that transparency is central to achieving this. Therefore we won’t not accept comments from people who do not provide their first name and surname. We accept that this may discourage some readers who prefer anonymity from posting comments, but we believe the use of real names is fundamental to achieving and maintaining a high and respectful level of debate in the forums on which we accept reader comments.
- Play the ball, not the person: We encourage committed, passionate and even heated debate, but insults or insinuations are not part of this. We won’t accept comments that contain personal remarks about the author of an article, about individuals mentioned in articles, or about others providing comment.
- Comment forum is for everyone, not dominant individuals: Our websites do not exist as platforms for individuals to seek to dominate debate or intimidate others with continual comments. We reserve the right to limit the number of comments published by any single commentor at any time or to ban from future use people who continually violate this policy.
- Evidence-based claims: It important that commentators provide clear evidence to verify facts they claim to be true in comments. Submissions containing claimed but unsupported facts which are clearly wrong or contestable will not be published. If a reader expresses an opinion agreeing or disagreeing with something, we encourage them to explain why – reasoning is as important as the opinion. Back up opinions with evidence and fact.
- Play nicely: Bad language, derogatory remarks, name-calling, streams of invective, threatening, insulting or harassing comments or which could be perceived as such will not be posted.
- Balanced debate: We aim to provide a forum for balanced debate on issues relevant to the Australian sheep industry. Where new posts repeat views expressed in previous comments on the same thread we reserve the right not to publish those comments. We encourage a range of perspectives, not a forum to be hijacked by one side of an argument or people driving a specific agenda to make multiple comments.
- No promotion/press releases: Comments will not be accepted which aim to promote particular products, services, organisations or individuals, nor will comments that are effectively a press release for an individual or organisation.
- No ‘shouting’: Posting in block capitals will not be accepted.
- Keep it brief: We reserve the right to edit for brevity or not to publish comments if they exceed 200 words.
- Legal issues: Any content which we deem potentially defamatory, prejudicial to an ongoing court case, or of a nature that could otherwise result in legal action, will be rejected or deleted.
Moderating comments is a time-consuming process and we cannot explain in every instance why a comment may not have been accepted, so we encourage readers to familiarise themselves with this policy before posting.
Please note that Sheep Central cannot endorse or stand by the accuracy, truthfulness or reliability of any material posted by users in comments to its articles.
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