Comments on Evanston Now are an essential part of the site.
The goal of our comment policy is to make the comments section a vibrant yet civil space.
Your access to post comments on Evanston Now is a privilege and not a right.
Comments are screened by an editor before going live. That may take a while depending on the time of day and how busy we are.
Much as we might like to engage with you in a discussion of why your comment was or was not published, we simply do not have the time to do that and still have time to cover the news. So, please don’t ask.
We reserve the right to ban people from commenting and from the site who violate our policies.
We do not require commenters to use their real names. We respect readers’ desire to remain anonymous. We do require that you provide a real email address so we can correspond with you about your comments. Providing a fake email address is likely to get your comment, and you, banned.
To be published, comments should be neither extremely long nor extremely short. Comments so short that they merely affirm your agreement with another commenter will not be published. Add something new. Comments too long and rambling will not be published. Try to say what you have to say in less than 300 words.
We may edit your comment to bring it into compliance with our policies, or to make it more readable, with or without contacting you about it. We’ll try our best to preserve the thrust of your argument, and we may even try to correct your spelling and punctuation. But we take no responsibility for any content you submit.
Help keep the comment section civil
- Don’t post anything a reasonable person would consider offensive, abusive or hate speech.
- Don’t make false claims.
- Don’t insult, bully or victim-blame.
- Don’t make racist, sexist or homophobic remarks.
- Don’t post anything obscene or sexually explicit.
- Don’t harass anyone, impersonate people or expose their private information.
- Don’t post personal contact information.
- Don’t post links that obscure the destination or lead to porn or gore.
- Don’t post stuff you don’t have the right to post.
- Don’t post comments that include threats of violence or incite violence in any form.
- Don’t post spam or otherwise vandalize the site.
- Don’t criticize people for their decision to post anonymously.
- Don’t speculate about the identity of persons posting anonymously.
- Don’t suggest that people who disagree with you should leave town.
And what should you do?
- Treat each other with respect — even the people you disagree with.
- Whenever possible, provide links to credible documentary evidence to back up your factual claims.
Your feedback
We welcome feedback about our comment policy and moderation. All such feedback should be handled by email at comments@evanstonnow.com, not in the comments section.