Standards and Etiquette for Shakespeareances.com
All postings to this site will be respectful and relevant to Shakespeare, Shakespeareances, Shakespeareancing, or the specific topic under discussion. We encourage opinion, we encourage passion, and we encourage intellectual, ideological, and illustrative inputs along with the occasional illogical, irrational, and irreverent inputs—as long as they are respectful.
While some people contend that sniping discussions enliven a site and draw traffic, my experience is that such vitriol also drives away as much (if not more) traffic, and the traffic it drives away are the people truly interested in the content and context of the site.
Thus, while by profession and personal ethics I am a defender of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment, on this site I will play the part of censor and cut or delete any commentary I deem to be any of the following.
- Toxic—This includes personal or professional insults, character attacks, diatribing political or academic partisanship, and ALL-CAP NON-ACRONYMS.
- Vulgar—This means all universally recognized vulgarities (this site, in addition to being suitable for people of all ages and cultures, needs to get through various server blockers) as well as sequential punctuation masquerading as words when used in adjectival or noun form by the poster (such a device is allowed when directly quoting a source).
- Solicitation—This not only includes mention of or linking to a product or service for the purpose of marketing that product or service (if you've got something to sell, we offer advertising space) but also mention of or linking to an organization or site whose primary purpose is to perpetrate a scam, hateful behavior, blatant misinformation, or other toxic matter.
- Misrepresentation—In addition to inaccurately giving facts in the post (cite your source), this includes misrepresentation of the poster, such as a false signature (we encourage posters to identify themselves rather than use anonymous postings, so signatures will be checked) or falsely claiming to be in a position, organization, or status (we will turn any evidence of such fraudulent behavior over to law enforcement authorities).
- Unnecessary ranting—Multiple re-assertions of a point in a discussion or long-winded, repetitive posturing fall under this catagory.
In return, I promise the following.
- Freedom of ideas—Any respectfully and factually rendered opinion will get fair airing, even when I, someone I admire, a sponsor or an advertiser disagrees with the opinion.
- Freedom from fear—I will strive to diligently police this site and all postings, and I will take all possible practical measures to keep the site and e-mail database secure so that your inbox does not get cluttered with invitations from real friendly women seeking a husband or people offering drugs that Lucio would endorse or Malvolio probably could have used.
- Freedom from aggravation—While we are offering advertising and sponsorships on this site, advertising will be complementary to the site's pages, and they will not be intrusive (I may be giving up some much-needed earnings saying this, but I hate pop-up ads, so I won't be allowing them on shakespeareances.com). We will not sell our e-mail database, and we will not allow any advertiser or sponsor use of our e-mail database separate from our weekly notification of updates to the site.
Eric Minton
September 1, 2011
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