Table of Contents

• Commenting Guidelines
• Karma
  • How Karma works
  • Frequent Questions/Statements about Karma
    • How can I raise my karma?
    • This karma thing isn't fair
    • Why should I vote?
    • Should I vote down only the inappropriate comments?
    • This isn't a very good system
• Replacement Messages
  • Comment disabled by Hometown Staff
  • Comment disabled by community reporting

Commenting guidelines

We require users to take responsibility for and encourage thoughtful consideration of comments made on this site. Please be civil.

This site has the right – but is under no obligation – to monitor and delete comments for any reason deemed appropriate by the managers.

If users feel a comment is inappropriate or offensive report it immediately using the Report Abuse link that is located on each comment. All reported comments are reviewed by staff to determine their appropriateness.

Comments solely reflect the views of and are owned by the individual users posting the comments, not Capital Gazette Communications, Inc. or it's suite of online properties including HometownAnnapolis.com, HometownGlenBurnie.com, HometownBowie.com and others. Users post comments on this site at their own risk.

Comments are limited to 2,000 characters. Consecutive posts made to circumvent this limitation will be deleted.

• Go to: Comments>>
• Go to: Get an account to post comments>>

Karma

The system of Karma allows the user community (as a group) to determine which individual comments are the most valuable. The cumulative voting on comments generates overall karma scores for the individuals that post comments. We leave it to the masses to determine the value of comments.

How Karma works

Each individual user starts out with neutral karma. As that user posts messages — and the messages are voted up/down — their karma is adjusted accordingly. As that individuals' karma changes, so does the weight, or the amount of affect their up/down votes have on other users. Users with higher karma are afforded more authority simply by having a greater affect on comment scores when they vote. Conversely, users with lower karma values have less authority when voting.

The five grades of Karma are: Terrible, Bad, Neutral, Good & Excellent.

Karma FAQ

How can I raise my Karma?

The user community raises your karma when they give thumbs-up votes to the comments that you post. The more thumbs-up votes you get, the higher your Karma will go.

This Karma thing isn't fair — where's my freedom of speech?

We hear this often. Automated crowd-sourcing solutions such as this are necessary in today's economy. You still get to speak your mind. You must accept that the community of users reading your post may not like what they read and will vote accordingly. This is no different than if you were to make a speech in a town square and the community starts throwing vegetables at you. One of our basic tenets for commenting is that you are responsible for what you say, and how you say it.

Why should I vote?

For this system to work effectively we need the online community to vote and express their opinion of comments. The more users vote the closer the Karma will reflect the entire community's opinion and will prevent a small group of people from controlling the system.

Should I vote down only the inappropriate comments?

No. Inappropriate comments should be reported (see below). Feel free to express your likes and dislikes when voting.

This isn't a very good system

It's not perfect, but it is modeled off of commenting systems implemented and proven successful on other websites. If you have suggestions for realistic alternatives, feel free to send an email to wcraft@capitalgazette.com. We are always looking for ways to improve the commenting system for the benefit of us all.

Comment removed message

Some comments will be disabled or minimized/hidden as a result of actions taken by Hometown staff and/or the user community. These messages may not immediately make sense. Here's a list of the various messages that may be displayed and what they indicate.

"Comment disabled by Hometown Staff"

You will see this message when a member of the Hometown Staff removes a comment for violations of our rules.

"Comment disabled by community reporting"

This message indicates that enough people in the public user community found a post to violate rules and/or be too abusive. In some cases (although very rare), these posts may re-appear if they are reviewed by a member of the staff and reinstated.