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Comment Guide

MTPR encourages comments from our audience to continue the conversation beyond our stories and programs. This website is a place where we may all share our ideas, opinions and experiences.

Our guidelines are intended to help build our online community with mutual respect, and are adapted from NPR’s Guidelines for Commenting.

Our comment platform is Disqus. To learn more about Disqus, click here.

All comments are moderated.  Your comment may not post immediately, particularly if it contains multiple hyperlinks or appears to be from an anonymous account. Please allow time for your comments to appear; posting the same comment multiple times may flag you as a spammer and delay the approval process.

We reserve the right to delete any comment at our discretion. Comments that are deemed inflammatory or insulting will be deleted, as will any comment that appears to be self-promotion or an attempt to drive traffic to another web site.

Write with civility and respect.  If you can't be polite, don't say it. Please try to disagree without being disagreeable. Focus your remarks on positions, not personalities. No name calling, slander, comments about someone's mother, comparisons to notorious dictators — you get the idea. Messages including hate speech, or threatening/harassing content are never acceptable. And, of course, don’t break any laws while posting.

Don't use obscenities — even if the word in question is often used in conversation. We're not going to list the words we object to; you know what they are. Remember, this is a public forum and we want everyone to feel comfortable participating ... and besides, your mother or your children might see it!      

Keep each post to about 200 words; longer posts tend to monopolize the discussion. It’s also a good idea to re-read your post for grammar and spelling before hitting Submit – writing clearly is a sign of courtesy to others. And please avoid TYPING IN ALL CAPS - it's the online version of shouting.

Stay on topic. Think of it this way — if you hosted a book club meeting at your house, you wouldn't want someone to show up and insist on discussing reality TV shows.

Anything you post should be your own work. You're welcome to link to relevant content and to quote from other people's work with attribution. But that doesn't mean you can copy and paste wholesale.

Please respect people's privacy. We love to learn about new and interesting individuals, but most people will not be happy to have their phone numbers or e-mail addresses published. If you need to share someone's contact information, please submit it through contact@mtpr.org.

Promote discussion not yourself.  This is not a place for advertising, promotion, recruiting, campaigning, soliciting or proselytizing. We understand that there can be a fine line between discussing and campaigning; please use your best judgment — and we will use ours.

Please don't use public forums for private communication. To reach an MTPR department or staff use contact@mtpr.org.