Comments Policy

SCOPE

This page covers all aspects of community interaction and moderation on tribune.com.pk, inclusive of comments on news posts, opinion pieces or blogs.

MODERATION GOALS

Tribune.com.pk aims to nurture a vibrant online community by giving our readers maximum flexibility and freedom in expressing their thoughts and ideas. Our goal is to encourage debate and make our site an engaging and informative web space, rich with discussion and user-led dialogue about news and issues explored by The Express Tribune. We believe that our community of readers add tremendous value to the site and are appreciative of their involvement.

MODERATION APPROACH

The basics: all comments submitted to tribune.com.pk go through a moderation process before being approved and published. The web staff receives comments in real-time as they are submitted and every single comment is read, scanned (see box on right to see what we scan for) and approved, or deleted in accordance with our policy guidelines. The moment a comment is approved it becomes visible on the post it was submitted on.

FAQ 1: I POSTED A COMMENT. WHY CAN'T I SEE IT ON THE SITE?

ANS: There are two reasons why 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 some time. Due to the volume of comments posted 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 our policy (see box on right to see what we scan for). We encourage our readers to speak their minds freely, provided comments fall within our comment policy. We must respect both our writers and our commenters by protecting them from slanderous or abusive comments. They too are entitled to free speech - the right to share their opinions without being subject to scathing and mean-spirited remarks.

FAQ2: DO YOU EDIT COMMENTS?

ANS: In general, no. The vast majority of submitted comments are published without any editing. We do however reserve the right to edit a comment for spelling, punctuation, style and general readability. We value every single comment that is submitted to tribune.com.pk, and for this reason, we may sometimes choose to delete parts of comments that violate our policy, but publish the remainder as is.

FAQ3: THERE IS A COMMENT THAT I FIND INSULTING AND IN VIOLATION OF YOUR POLICY. WHAT CAN I DO?

ANS: You can alert us by simply leaving a comment in the same post which contains the offending comment, and we will follow up on it shortly. Due to the high volume of submitted comments, human error factors sometimes means we can make mistakes in comment moderation. In such cases we rely on our community to help us by submitting a comment telling us of our mistake - thank you.

In brief:

• Please act with maturity and consideration for other users.
• Don't be unpleasant. Demonstrate and share with intelligence, wisdom and humour.
• Take responsibility for the quality of the conversations in which you're participating. Help make our site an intelligent space for discussion.

If you have suggestions or questions about any aspect of community participation on tribune.com.pk, you can write to web@tribune.com.pk - please mark all queries clearly in the subject line (e.g. Question about moderation decision on Books blog).

NOTE ABOUT COMMUNITY CONTENT

The views expressed in community areas of this site do not necessarily reflect or represent the views of The Express Tribune, its staff or contributors. The Express Tribune does not bear any responsibility for user comments.