Legally, we must retain the right to remove any material we choose to remove,
for any reason, at any time, and disavow any responsibility for any posting,
whether that of a commentor, an author, or what someone may have written in
an email insofar as it is permissible for us to do so within the law. However,
that said, we aim to be true to progressive principals, open to all ideas and
against violence in all its forms.
Commentors (and writers) may feel free to support or assault any idea they
wish, with the following limitations:
Non-Violence: We are against violence in all its forms and advocating
for violence in any form is forbidden with one exception; We recognize the
right to self defense and to defend others who may not be able to defend themselves,
and advocating a defense that may be considered violent by some will be permitted
so long as it is clear when expressing such advocacy that it is in support
of a defensive action and why it may be necessary. There are some limits to
our "self defense" policy: Like the Torah, Koran, and Christian
Bible, we believe that an individual life begins at birth, not conception,
and do not consider defense of a fetus through violence, or advocacy of that
action, a legitimate activity. There are likely other similar limitations
to our "self defense" muting of our non-violence policy.
Attack ideas or actions taken, not people: We recognize that conflicts
arise between people commenting online (or in email) and that people do offensive
things, however, we ask that people refrain from attacking one another directly;
rather, go after the ideas advocated or actions taken and decry them instead.
It is a violation of our terms of service to directly attack a person or non-self-selected
group of people.
Having said that, we also recognize that there are persecuted groups out
there, such as the
people referred to in this article, and the persecuted may at times
want to vent their frustrations and anger at their persecutors; this we
will permit so long as such individual persecutors are not also commenting
on this site, and so long as the posting is otherwise not in violation of
these terms of service.
Group Insults: There are two types of groups to consider in understanding
our policy, self-selected groups, and groups to which someone belongs without
their own choice. Insulting or attacking entire groups of people in non-self-selected
groups will not be tolerated.
Personal / Private Information: Posting someone's private data, including
but not limited to their name, address or other contact data, age, etc., will
not be tolerated. However, there are two exceptions:
public officials, or anyone who serves in a public capacity, may have
any non-home-address data published.
individuals who may have given their permission for their data to be
shared publicly or which is otherwise widely known.
Stalking & Harassment: If someone wishes to be left alone and
states so, it will be a violation of our terms of service to continue to contact
that person. Likewise, it's a violation of our terms of service to intentionally
and repeatedly goad someone, which we feel is a form of harassment. However,
comments in reply to the content of another individual's comments will not
be considered stalking so long as it does not address the person directly
and so long as it addresses non-personal content of their post, such as political
ideas they may have commented on; that will be considered talking to the rest
of the community.
Libel: Libel is the use of false, defamatory claims about someone
in written or printed form and will not be tolerated insofar as that person
is identifiable; anonymously operated accounts are not afforded such protection.
An exception to this follows U.S. law: politicians and public officials (individuals
who serve the public in any capacity) are specifically exempted, and we will
not consider it a violation of terms of service to libel a politician, official,
or "public servant" unless we learn from competent counsel that
we ourselves could run afoul of the law.
Spamming: Obviously, the posting of advertising for goods or services
is not permissible without advance approval. However, there's a category called
"spamming" which is the constant repetition of a single point or
idea. Sometimes repetition of an idea or articulation of a historical fact
is a very good thing, and at other times it's intentionally irritating and
distracting. When appropriate in context, and when not too frequent - which
is admittedly subjective - this type of "spamming" will be permitted.
However, keep in mind the context; if it's out of context to any on-going
discussion and isn't pertinent, that's a violation of our terms of service.
If it's arguably on-subject, then it's a question of frequency, which depends
on the rate of other new postings. Spamming to the point of annoyance is not
OK.
Attacking Progressives As Right Wing: With the obvious right-wing
takeover of what was "the left" - the Democratic Party - made plainly
visible during the presidential campaign that has been underway as this site
and its active participants have come together, many of us who have been critical
of the Democratic Party and it's Presidential Candidate have been labeled
as "right wingers" by those who are actually on the right and support
current Democrats. These people attempt to claim that we who are the true
left are actually on the right by virtue of our happening to have many of
the same positions as those on the right at this particular moment in time,
and a great many of us on the left find the suggestion preposterous, and offensive.
Worse, some try and disrupt our ranks by insinuation that some among us are
really right-wingers trying to lead us astray. We find this reprehensible.
This site aims to support true Progressive viewpoints through both high-quality
discussions of every topic with no subject off-the table and at the same
time maintain a relative absence of intentional offense against others in
that dialogue. Therefore, we explicitly declare that any suggestion that
any Progressive - especially any active on this site - is actually on the
right is an inherently offensive act and will not be tolerated without exact
specifics and a reasoned argument why; those who wish to discuss the matter
must speak in terms of either very generic action of those on the right
and how they might behave without insinuation anyone on OUR site is such
an actor OR they must cite specific comments or specific arguments that
support their conjecture. We will not tolerate attempts to disrupt Progressive
activities by claiming they're right wing without solid, non-inflamitory
support including specifics.
Paid Posting: We are strongly opposed to paid commenters. They are
a tool of the ultra-rich in their attempts to maintain mastery over us all.
If we have reason to suspect you are a paid commenter, we are likely to block
you from posting temporarily while we give you an opportunity to prove to
us in private that you are not paid for commenting at our site on email list(s)
we operate. In our world-view, being paid to comment at anything but your
own site is just not morally acceptable. Furthermore, as it is clearly against
our terms of service, be forewarned that we may very well sue the employers
of paid posters who post here anyway.
"Shit Stirring:" We have found that some people appear
to get a joy out of making others angry; this will not be tolerated at The
Troy Press. While it may take time before someone's contributions may have
obvious value, if ever, those who don't even try to contribute anything of
value, make no attempts at making friends, posting nothing interesting, informative,
creative or funny, and only appear to have succeeded in wasting people's time
will certainly find themselves on the wrong side of our no-shit-stirring policy
if they are offensive. And, whether they are offensive or not is not for them
to decide. Furthermore, it will be the "body of contribution" that
will be considered, and feigned attempts at chatting-up people will not be
taken seriously. Of particular import is the entrance someone makes; if you
are rude straight away, you're likely in violation of this ToS entry.
Feel free to email us
and tell us what you think of our Terms of Service - did we miss something important?
