The Eurovision Times is proud to have one of the most active communities on the web. Here are some tips and rules about how you can participate in the discussions. As this blog is hosted by wordpress.com we have no traffic limit and thus no server problems in Eurovision week, which is a big advantage. It does mean there are often a lot of comments to moderate however and we ask for your co-operation in making the blog a friendly and welcoming site.
How do I get a personalized avatar?
Any user can reply to any post and state their opinion. Recently, we decided that you do need to have a wordpress.com account to post. If you don’t have a gravatar, a neutral anonymous avatar will appear next to your comment. In order to get a personal avatar so people can recognize you go here (link).There you can find a video that explains you how it works. The avatars and profiles on wordpress are all based on gravatar, so you must to create an account there.
The Rules
– comments with xenophobic, racist, pornographic content will not be published or deleted as soon as an administrator is alerted to them.
– Spam Comments: Spam is automatically held back by Askimet and will not be published (comments with three or more links will need to be approved before being published to prevent spamming too.)
– Respect Your Counterpart: The discussion should be founded on mutual respect. You can disagree, but never get personal! Disagree without being disagreeable.
– Respect Your Fellow Participants: Read everything in the discussion thread before replying. This will help you avoid repeating something someone else has already contributed. Acknowledge the points made with which you agree and suggest alternatives for those with which you don’t. Be thoughtful and generous in your response to other people’s messages – try to consider what might be useful in what they are trying to say even if you disagree with it. Some would say this is the most important guideline of all!
– No Flaming: Criticism must be constructive, well-meaning, and well articulated. Please, no tantrums. Rants directed at or about any of your classmates or other Eurovision sites are simply unacceptable and will not be tolerated. The same goes for profanity! (Expressions that are frequent in oral English are exempted from this rule)
– Respect Diversity: It’s a multicultural world in which we live. Use no language that is offensive—or could be construed as such— toward others. Racist, sexist, and heterosexist comments are unacceptable, as are derogatory and/or sarcastic jokes directed at religious beliefs, disabilities, and age.
– No Yelling: Be friendly. Using bold, upper-case letters is bad form, like yelling at somebody, not to mention being hard on the eye.
– Proper Writing Style: Correct spelling, grammatical construction and sentence structure (as far as you are capable) should be correct and at least understandable.
– The language of the blog is English: If you use other languages please add a translation next to it so everybody can understand you!
– Keep your messages within the general topic area
Sanctions:
If you do not respect these general rules, you will be warned first (on the comments sections with a general reminder) and on occasion by personal email, and can be banned from the discussions for a while or even forever. The punishment for breaking a rule is decided among the members of the main team or an administrator.
Where we feel the need to impose moderation for a time, we will email the email address you have registered your Eurovision Times WordPress account with. It is your responsibility to keep that email address updated and check it, as we have no other way to contact you privately.
– Setting up duplicate accounts
Anyone setting up new accounts (new names, proxy IP addresses etc.) to try and avoid being put on moderation faces a longer ban.
Thank you for your co-operation
The Eurovision Times 