Dear Readers:
An important goal of WEHOville is to provide a platform for discussion of community issues. We do that with our Let’s Discuss section and by allowing comments on all of the stories and opinion pieces we post. We actively seek out people of all political persuasions and on all sides of an issue to post their opinions on Let’s Discuss. And we’re thrilled to see active and informed debates taking place in the Comments sections that follow our stories.
Many of our readers have raised questions about various opinion pieces and comments and asked whether we have rules that govern what we publish. Here are some of the questions and our answers:
Q. Why do so you publish so many opinion pieces and comments on your site? Your competitor in West Hollywood doesn’t publish comments on any stories.
A. A community must have a forum for public discussion of local issues if it is to grow and flourish and meet the needs of its residents. That was a role fulfilled in the past only by West Hollywood Patch. But the decision of its owner, AOL, to radically cut staff, merge West Hollywood Patch with Beverly Hills Patch and eliminate spending on reporting, has left an enormous void. And anyone who attends a West Hollywood City Council meeting is aware that the only real discussion that takes place is across the raised dais on which the council members sit. So we feel an obligation to be the virtual public square where all sides of an issue can be discussed and all opinions aired.
Q. Some of your Let’s Discuss pieces come from challengers in the West Hollywood City Council election. You don’t post pieces from incumbents. Shouldn’t you refuse to post any comments from a candidate during the campaign?
A. We have invited people from across the political spectrum and on all sides of various issues to contribute to Let’s Discuss (for example, we’ve sought contributions from every member of the West Hollywood City Council). All candidates have been willing to address four key questions we posed (their answers are on the Election 2013 page).
The unwillingness of a public official to engage in public discussions with citizens on WEHOville is not, in our opinion, a reason to refuse to publish the opinions of those who do want to join important public debates. It is especially important to publish commentary on local issues from those running for election. If all voters can rely on is unidirectional messages that candidates distribute through the mail, how will they really know what the candidates stand for?
Q. Do you post every comment made on a story? Do you have rules you follow?
A. We read and approve each comment before it is posted. And we do have guidelines. A comment must be relevant. So we won’t publish a comment saying that someone has done business with someone who is a pederast (a comment actually submitted to us) if the subject under discussion is the city council race. The comment must not include obscene words. It must not allege illegal activity that has not been proven and made public. So we won’t publish a comment saying someone is an embezzler unless he or she has been convicted of that. We also don’t publish ad hominem attacks — critical comments about a person rather than about the issue he or she has been engaged in.
Q. I have tried to post a comment on a story, but it doesn’t show up. Why is that?
A. We are constantly reviewing and approving comments for posting. However, if you post a comment at an odd hour (say, 1 a.m.) it’s not likely that we’ll get a chance to review it until the morning. If your comment very obviously violates our rules, as listed above, we won’t publish it. In most cases, however, we’ll email you with advice on how to change your comment to meet the rules. If you post a comment and it doesn’t appear, email me directly at [email protected] to alert me, and we will investigate.
Q. Why don’t you require commenters to use their real names?
A. We don’t require that people use their real names to make it easier for readers to express themselves in a small community where some say they fear intimidation if they criticize civic leaders. At the same time, we don’t allow commenters to assume various identities. So someone who comments as City Lover can’t also add a comment as Dog Fan that leaves a reader with the impression that there are multiple people expressing a particular point of view on the same story or issue. Our tech staff identifies those multiple postings by the same person and we remove them.
Q. If I want to write a Let’s Discuss piece for WEHOville, what do I do?
A. First, make sure the piece you want to write is relevant to West Hollywood or to issues important to the community. A piece on the importance of peace in the Middle East or how to successfully extricate ourselves from Afghanistan is not for us. If you’re not sure that what you want to write is WeHo-oriented, email me at [email protected] describing it in a sentence or two, and I’ll let you know if it’s relevant. Also, don’t worry about not being a writer. We’re happy to help you put your ideas into words. We edit pieces submitted to us, and never publish them without the final approval of the writer.
Thanks for clarifying all this!