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Small tweaks to the participation guidelines

Small tweaks to the participation guidelines

So the Buzzer blog has been up for over a year now, and it seems time to make some small tweaks to the participation guidelines.

Let me explain!

I think the discussion we have is great—you guys are super smart and I rarely ever have to moderate comments—so these changes are NOT intended to restrict or stop the conversations we have.

There’s only three tweaks to be made, and they’re really meant to cover unanticipated situations that didn’t quite fit the previous guidelines, or areas where I just missed something completely. (I should also mention these guidelines were used for BePartofthePlan.ca already.)

Basically, you know how I moderate now? Well, that’s how I’ll continue to moderate, and the guidelines will now explain what’s expected more clearly, based on a year’s worth of experience of what actually happens around here.

And here are the three changes, with explanations.

Old guidelines Change/addition Explanation
Be nice
A good conversation requires participants who are considerate with one another. So please be polite and treat authors and other commenters with respect. We won’t tolerate any personal attacks on the blog, and we’ll remove any content that advocates or encourages expressions of violence, bigotry, racism, or hatred.
Respect everyone
A good conversation requires participants who are considerate with one another. So please be polite and treat everyone who you refer to with respect, including TransLink, its family of companies, and its staff. We won’t tolerate attacks, and we’ll definitely remove any content that advocates or encourages expressions of violence, bigotry, racism, or hatred.
For the most part, we at TransLink have a high tolerance for insults and criticism, but when the abuse just gets egregious and unnecessary to making a point, that’s just gotta go.
No previous equivalent Don’t misinform or mislead
We will remove any comments that make obviously false or unsubstantiated allegations.

Intended to combat comments which are huge lies but hard to concretely disprove. They’re super poisonous to keep around. I’m talking conspiracy theories or totally left-field comments, like “TransLink wants to eat your babies” or “Over half of all transit employees have criminal records.” (Obviously neither of these are true!)
No previous equivalent Employees
If you’re an employee of TransLink or a TransLink subsidiary (SkyTrain, Coast Mountain Bus Company, West Coast Express, Canada Line, AirCare, Intelligent Transportation Systems, Transportation Property & Casualty Company Inc), you’re required to identify yourself as such whenever participating in the discussion.
I always thought of the blog as for the public, but employees certainly do come here to chat (and are more than welcome to!). I’d just like to ask staff to identify your affiliation, so everyone can know who’s who.

I think these are pretty sound, and I’ll put them in place starting today. Your comments are of course welcome though!

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