Q: Just what is a “deaddrift“?
A: To catch fish consistently with a fly rod, you’ve got to be able to control how your fly and your fly line are affected by a river’s various currents. When you’re fishing with a dry fly or a nymph, one of the keys to a good presentation is a “dead drift” — when the fly drifts naturally in the current, as if it weren’t attached to anything. What makes this difficult is that the fly is, in fact, attached to the fly line, and if the line is drifting faster or slower than the fly, it will drag the fly through the water.
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Q: What is Deaddrift.com’s Comment Policy?
A: Community and Commenting Guiding Principles
In order to promote an open and transparent conversation, the Deaddrift.com moderates comments on news stories and blog posts.
The responsibility of each of our staff moderators is to publish appropriate comments and delete inappropriate comments. We also invite our community members to report inappropriate comments. Our staff moderators pay close attention to our community.
Moderation, by its very nature, is subjective. The lines can be blurry. But our staff moderators and community moderators are guided by a series of basic guidelines. These guidelines include compliance with U.S. law, including copyright law, and regulations pertaining to intellectual property.
In general, the best way to determine whether a comment is appropriate is simple. Ask first whether it’s inappropriate. Ask whether it violates any of the guidelines outlined here. If it does, then it should be reported or deleted. If it doesn’t, the comment should be published or left alone.
Here are our guiding principles:
(I) Deaddrift.com welcomes all users to join our community and to comment and treats all members of the community equally.
We do not discriminate based on the person who is posting, and we never censor comments for political or ideological reasons. We never delete an appropriate comment because we disagree with its viewpoint or ideology, and we never publish an inappropriate comment because we agree with or support its viewpoint or ideology. We also do not tolerate ad hominem attacks of any kind.
(II) We want Deaddrift.com to be home to open, transparent conversations in which people connect, discuss, share ideas, and debate the issues.
This can sometimes lead to frustration, anger, hyperbole, or the use of biting humor. Courtesy can vanish, manners abandoned. As a community dedicated to being open and transparent and committed to fostering a vibrant discussion of the issues of the day, we can tolerate this.
We also allow a reasonable level of profanity. But our commitment to a basically civil tone means we do not allow extravagant or superfluous profanity or speech that is otherwise vile. We use our common-sense judgment to discern between the two and err on the side of openness and transparency.
(III) We are also committed to maintaining a non-toxic atmosphere.
As such, we do not allow hate speech, nor do we allow speech that advocates or supports hatred or unlawful violence. Likewise, threats of violence or threats to anyone or any group’s personal safety are not acceptable. We also do not allow false claims or misleading implications that any individual or group perpetuates hate or unlawful violence.
We do not allow comments that criticize others based on physical appearances or mental characteristics. We do not allow comments that celebrate the death, illness, or personal loss of any person.
We also do not allow the promotion and propagation of conspiracy theories, except aliens, aliens are cool with us.
(IV) In order to preserve a functional and civil conversation, we do not allow trolls, trollish behavior, or stalking.
We do not allow speech that is solely intended to provoke other users, to cause disorder or confusion, or to inhibit regular, on-topic conversation. In this area especially, we defer to the flags left by our users in the context of our growing community reputation system.
We also do not tolerate stalking. This includes posting personal information about another community member, pursuing another member from thread to thread in an attempt to harass, deliberately misquoting or lying about another member, copying a username in order to embarrass or harass another member, or unwelcome sexual advances toward another member. In addition, we do not tolerate lying about being a staff moderator or about communications with a staff moderator.
(V) Members of the Deaddrift community deserve to be free from spam, and we do not allow posting the same comment multiple times within one thread or on multiple threads.
We also flag and delete all comments containing business solicitations or other advertising of personal interests, blogs, or websites. (A link to a personal blog is fine.)
Spam includes comments that are off-topic. If off-topic conversation inhibits or prevents on-topic conversation, we consider it comment hijacking, and do not allow it. That said, we understand that Deaddrift comment section aren’t just about content. They’re also about conversation. And in natural conversation, people exchange pleasantries, greetings, congratulations, praise, and other social gestures. So we err on the side of facilitating an open conversation, even when that means permitting limited off-topic comments and conversation. Also in this area especially, we defer to the flags left by our users in the context of our growing community reputation system.
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Q: I posted a comment. Why can’t I see it on the site?
A: There are two scenarios under which your comment may not appear:
1. It may be pending approval. Comments on the blog are moderated BEFORE they appear on the site, and this takes time. Since the volume of comments on the site can grow rapidly, there is often a delay between a comment being posted and it being approved, especially during peak hours. We appreciate your patience and ask that you refrain from posting the same comment repeatedly.
2. Your comment violated the policy above. We pride ourselves in providing a medium for engaging and thought-provoking stories and encourage our users to speak their minds freely, provided comments fall within our commenting policy. We must respect our writers and protect them from vicious and inflammatory comments. They too are entitled to free speech- the right to share their opinions without being subject to scathing and mean-spirited remarks.
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Q: Why am I blocked from commenting on Deaddrift.com?
A: There are a few scenarios under a comment might be blocked:
1. A comment is extremely abusive, off-topic, uses excessive foul language, or includes an ad hominem attack.
2. If a commenter has previously posted comments that are abusive, off-topic, used excessive foul language, or include ad hominem attacks, a Deaddrift. moderator may decide to ban the commenter’s IP address. This means the abusive commenter is banned from commenting on the site in the future, even if the later comments are not abusive.
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Q: Can I include HTML in my comments?
A: We remove all html from comments to preserve formatting consistency.
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Q: If you don’t allow any HTML, how can I include a link in my comment?
A: If you include a URL in your comment, it will be converted to a link. Please note, comments containing links to personal blogs and other inappropriate sites will be deleted. Only links to relevant news stories or sites are acceptable.
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Q: There is a comment that I find insulting and in violation of your policy. What can I do?
A: You can report the post to us. This alerts our moderators and delete the comments that don’t comply with our policy.
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Q: What is the US copyright law regarding “fair use” of copyrighted material without the consent of the rightsholder, as it pertains to online journalism?
A: US copyright law allows certain “fair uses” of copyrighted material without consent of the rightsholder; such uses explicitly include “criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research.” Making a final determination relies on a “four-factor test”:
(1) the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
(2) the nature of the copyrighted work;
(3) the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
(4) the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.
