In an effort to foster more civil debate on our web site, the
East Bay Express has instituted a new commenting policy that prohibits comments that include personal attacks. Any comment that includes a personal attack of any kind will be deleted. In addition, commenters who violate this policy after being warned will be banned from the site.
However, the new policy does not mean we don’t welcome debate or disagreement, because we do. If you disagree with the point of view of an author, commenter, or a subject of a story, we encourage you to detail why you disagree, but you must do so without engaging in personal attacks.
We believe a more civil discourse will encourage more people to engage in debate on our web site, because they will not have to be afraid of being personally attacked – or have their friends or people they agree with attacked personally.
Also, we strongly encourage commenters to use their real names. Although we still will allow anonymous or fake names, we believe that their use encourages people to employ uncivil language.
