Commenting Policy Overview The Jewish News of Northern California welcomes comments and discussion on our stories and social media postings. But we will not become a platform for shouting matches or personal attacks against individuals, organizations or religious or political perspectives. Good comment moderation will help ensure quality discourse, quality online community, and a greater opportunity for understanding among diverse groups of people struggling with divisive issues. Helpful hints J.’s commenting goal is to provide a safe space to discuss a wide variety of issues. You can help create that space by following these helpful hints: Be clear and stay on topic Be succinct Avoid excess rhetoric Share your enthusiasm and passions, but don’t let them get in the way of your ability to communicate productively Focus on the civil exchange of facts in support of the case you want to make or issue you want to highlight Zero tolerance Given the emotional megatonnage of some of the topics in discussion, J. has a zero-tolerance policy for: Profanity of any sort Personal attacks against individuals in the guise of attacking their ideas (ad hominem attacks) Hate speech targeting ethnicity, race, gender, sexual and gender orientation, religion, economic status, age and/or nationality Uncivil, intolerant discourse, including name calling in any form, and comments that denigrate any race, ethnicity, nationality, religion or Jewish religious stream Calls for the destruction of any state or national body or related populations Comments meant primarily to advertise a business or organization Comments in violation of this policy will be deleted. J. reserves the right to also ban violators under a one- to three-strikes policy, depending on the severity and nature of the abuse. Pursuing clarity and quality J.’s goal in supporting community comments and conversation is to increase the quality and openness of discourse on its Web and social media. As such, J. reserves the right to moderate the following in comments: Excessive length. Comments longer than 3,500 characters risk rejection. Misrepresentations of facts, and the use of logical fallacies in arguments, will be addressed on a case-by-case basis. In both cases these offenses should be addressed through discourse in the comments and personal email encouraging self-editing by the commentator, with banning and deleting as a very last resort. Other prohibited text J. will remove comments that: Qualify as spamming, phishing or flooding Express or imply that any statements you make are endorsed by us, without our prior written consent Use material that (a) is copyrighted, protected by trade secret or otherwise subject to third-party proprietary or intellectual property rights, including privacy and publicity rights, unless you are the owner of such rights or have permission from their rightful owner to post the material; (b) is unlawful, obscene, defamatory, libelous, threatening, fraudulent, abusive, pornographic, harassing or encourages conduct that would be considered a criminal offense, or does or could give rise to civil liability or violate any law, rule or regulation, or is otherwise objectionable, or infringes our or any third party’s intellectual property or other rights; (c) is intended to victimize, harass, degrade or intimidate an individual or group of individuals on the basis of age, disability, ethnicity, gender, race, religion or sexual orientation; (d) is non-public information about companies without the authorization to do so; or (e) is an advertisement, solicitation, chain letter, pyramid scheme, investment opportunity or other unsolicited commercial communication (except as otherwise expressly permitted by us). Disclaimers People participating in J.’s comment sections and social media occasionally post messages or make statements, whether intentionally or unintentionally, that are inaccurate, misleading, deceptive or inflammatory. We neither endorse nor are responsible for such messages or statements, or for any opinion, advice, information or other utterance made or displayed. You own your words: The opinions expressed in J.’s comment sections and social media reflect solely the opinion of the participants and may not reflect those of J. J. is not responsible for any errors or omissions in articles or postings, for hyperlinks embedded in messages or for any results obtained from the use of such information. Under no circumstances will we or our affiliates, suppliers or agents be liable for any loss or damage caused by your reliance on such information obtained through J.’s comment sections and social media.