Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Current
Weather
32°F

Help: Story Commenting

Commenting Guidelines
Karma
- How Karma works
- Frequent Questions/Statements about Karma
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.

EVENTS CALENDAR

more>>

Feb 09 - Woodland Beach Vol. Fire Dept. Fundraiser

Feb 09 - CANCELLED: College of Theology Holy Temple Cathedral Satellite Campus

Feb 10 - ABWA dinner meeting- Darlene Craven, President of the Maryland Capital Chapter

Feb 10 - The Shadow Effect Movie

Feb 11 - CAC Baseball 10U County Tryouts

MOST RECENT COMMENTS

Constellation (Despite what local residents begged them to do, constellation proves that they dont care. They'll do whatever they want to save themselves a buck. -- Mark M - MIllersville, MD)

Rick (I apologize. You are correct. The following is directly from the County Code: Weather-related emergency conditions. During weather-related emergenc... -- Fay Hall - Severna Park, md)

Rick (Is is different for City taxi's than it is for County taxi's? County taxi rates are set by law. -- Fay Hall - Severna Park, md)

Snow Emergency (It is legal for cabs to raise the normal rates. -- Rick M - Laurel, Md)

Robin (I wish others had your dedication. We also got the daily star, except when it snowed, and then forgot about it. Did the South County get 30+ inches? B... -- Rick M - Laurel, Md)

AS I SEE IT (by Mainer Mike Brown Annapolis has seen more snow in the last week than southern Maine has all year. -- mike brown - hiram, me)

E. Corbett (I don't know about way too much color, it is just that the colors are just dern hideous!! If they had used numerous colors that complimened each othe... -- Jo Maize - Edgewater, md)

Sal (I like you -- Fay Hall - Severna Park, md)

Schubbie (We are not your friends so stop with the "my friends" stuff. -- Fay Hall - Severna Park, md)

Delivery (When I was a kid, living in PG County 45 years ago,I delivered the Washington Daily News and my brother delivered the Washington Star. We never failed... -- Robin Stanek - Churchton, MD)

Peg (Report the cab drivers that were going to charge you more than the legal fare -- Fay Hall - Severna Park, md)

Jack (Thanks for the positive side of the snow. I think maybe some of our posters are a little too snow weary to see it that way. -- Fay Hall - Severna Park, md)

Thank you (I want to thank the Bobcat operator that cleared our section of McKinsey Rd. this past Sunday (7Feb). After getting his pick-up stuck he unloaded his... -- joshua wolff - severna park, md)

Picture (The picture that is included with this article is of Duglas Rosales, one of the hardest working employees that we have at The Brickman Group. With the... -- Erin King - annapolis, md)

Game of the Day (The Super Bowl was a letdown compared to this game. It also came with one of the biggest commentator gaffes of all time. Milbury's comment that "Cro... -- Michael Thompson - Crofton, MD)

Get real!!! (The area of "historic" Annapolis is hardly a "DOWNTOWN". It WAS a downtown area hundreds of years ago, but that time has come and gone. It is simply ... -- micheal campbell - Annapolis, Md)

A Matter of Resources (Salvatorre has made a valid point about the limitation of resources in areas that don't normally get that much snow. Just thank God you're not an o... -- Doug Hill - Arnold, MD)

Another vanity project (This time it's a private yacht club, marina, and shrine to a bunch of rich white guys. How much more elitist can you get at public expense? Cohen... -- Bob Bolder - Annapolis, MD)

What a crock...for your Boston Bean ("In New England, we regularly got snows of ten feet or more and we didn't even shut down the library." Puleeze. Drop the snow-superiority. I know quit... -- Salvatorre Bagatelli - Annapolis, MD)

UPS (Comments about the UPS drivers are short changing their work ethic and committment to servicing the customer in a very competitive small package deliv... -- chuck davis - annapolis, md)

Kudos (I want to thank the county for NOT plowing my road as the elderly people on my road who ran out of medication need to learn to toughen up. -- Fred Shubbie - annapolis , md)

No Tears (Having been out of New England for 27 years--that a wicked long time-- you hardly seem an authority on all things New England. New Englanders , real o... -- Fred Shubbie - annapolis , md)

All Babies Cry (I moved from New England to the Annapolis area 27 yrs ago and am very accustomed to the snow. Up north 24" is not a big deal because it's what your... -- jack douglass - arnold, MD)

neighborly help (I wanted to thank Mr. Cook of Admiral Heights and Mrs & Mr Pappas of Admiral Heights for helping me get to work Monday. The city hadn't (and still ha... -- Peg Stone - Annapolis, md)

Strike (Yes my friends every the unions should offer as much resistance as possible to Cohen's heavy-handed attempts to balance the city's budget at the expen... -- Fred Shubbie - annapolis , md)