Housekeeping: Keep It Civil, People
Hey there Best and Brightest! How are you doing? Feeling good on a Monday? That's good. Well, grab a cup of coffee and sit down. We need to talk.
I've been noticing over the past few weeks and months that the comment section has gotten a bit nasty. A lot of personal insults have been flying around.
Admittedly, a lot of stuff is sliding through because our new Web site design changed our moderation system and made it a bit harder to catch comments that violate the rules. Also, I personally tend to err on the side of allowing a comment because I don't want to squelch someone's legitimate opinion (even if I disagree with it or it appears to be based on faulty facts). But enough is enough.
We have comments because we want to foster interesting, civil discussions about cars and the automotive industry (and yes, it probably helps our traffic). And politics, as fraught as they are right now and as divided as this country is, affect the automotive industry greatly. This means we're not going to shy away from politics as it relates to cars, whether we are writing a news story, analysis, or opinion.
What we ask of you is to be civil. To dial down the personal insults, flaming, bad-faith arguments, and trolling to a level somewhere around zero.
I don't want to hear "he/she did it first" or "the left/right is doing it!" No one should be doing it.
We'd like you to follow the six rules of commenting on TTAC. We'll also remind you that this is our sandbox, and we set the rules. Since at least two of the rules center around personal insults, we will make a stronger effort to warn and ban those who violate those rules (as well as those who violate the other rules, of course). We're also going to work with our corporate partners to improve the moderation system so that rule-breaking comments become less likely to slip through.
Having comments is a privilege. A lot of Web sites have shut down comments or made it harder to comment. We've not done that and I hope we never do.
That said, you all have to EARN that privilege. If the nastiness continues, we will consider taking more drastic steps.
Play nice, or don't play at all.
[Image: fizkes/Shutterstock.com]
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Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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And yes there is 'trolling' occurring on this site. Attempts to 'bait' other posters. Including the posting of what is claimed to be 'alternate facts'. The definitions of 'alternate facts' being: 1. a theory posited as an alternative to another, often more widely accepted, theory 2. facetious, a statement intended to contradict another more verifiable, but less palatable statement.
The USENET Pledge, a modest proposal - June 1995
"I am figuring out and adopting a code of network behavior for myself. I invite you to join me." - Tom Van Vleck
1. I will respect others. If I disagree with their ideas or behavior, I will do so courteously, without personal attack. I will remember that the way I see things is not the only possible right way.
2. I will conserve bandwidth. If I have no value to add, I won't post.
3. Generalizations, analogies, jokes, sarcasm, and irony are too much fun to give up entirely, but they are often misinterpreted. I will try to imagine how others might read my posts.
4. If I think others' network behavior is incorrect, I will not respond, complain, comment, or correct. I will ignore. I will lead by positive example.
5. If I am angry or tired, I will save my posting and look at it when I am clear-headed before sending it.
6. I will stick to the subject.
7. I will not put bumper stickers or my pedigree at the end of every message. The best length for a .sig is zero lines.