Proposed Policy for Comments

Greetings-- it's great to see that there are already people posting! I haven't had a chance to check out Steve's link, but it's my to-do list for tomorrow.

One thing we never covered (neither at faculty meetings nor either of the student meetings) is a policy for comments on the blog. On the one hand, this is the Internet, where unexpected feedback from all corners of the globe can easily reach us, and give us all sorts of valuable information. On the other hand, this is the Internet, where there's really no way to stop someone from lying about their identity and saying wildly inappropriate things.

Blogger has several different comment settings; there are only two that apply to our situation:
1) Anyone can comment, or
2) Comments can only come from registered Blogger users, who must log in with a valid @gmail.com address.

Making someone sign up for an email account just to leave comments seems like a silly and unnecessary hurdle. As a starting point for the policy, I propose this:
1) Anyone can submit a comment.
2) All comments will be moderated, i.e., approved by the moderator (me) before appearing on the blog.
3) Comments that are malicious or inappropriate will not be posted.
4) Commenters who feel that their comment was unfairly not-posted can contact the moderator by email (wsallak@kent.edu) and make their case.
5) In the event that Step 4 fails to provide a satisfactory outcome, the comments in question will be referred to School Director Cindy Stillings, who may then make a determination in conjunction with the moderator and any faculty members she feels could meaningfully contribute to the decision-making process.

I don't anticipate this becoming a major problem (inappropriate comments are usually really easy to identify), but it's better to have the policy in place, discuss it, and adjust it to meet everyone's needs, rather than be caught confronting a difficult choice flat-footed.

Students and faculty: please feel free to write me with your thoughts about this policy, or begin a public discussion of the policy in the...ta da!...comments section. Cheers--

--Bill Sallak (Assistant Professor/Dance Music Director/Moderator)