Comments Policy
People Of Color Organize! is NOT a ‘free speech’ website! We want oppressed people to feel welcome to conversations. We may selectively choose not to publish comments that could potentially steer conversations into a non-inclusive or problematic direction for the audience.
People Of Color Organize! supports intelligent, respectful conversations and a space where real discussions involving oppressed communities, particularly the subjects of a post or prompt, can happen.
Please note that the site tracks comments and runs metrics which will make specific posts more popular and visible for first-time and seasoned visitors to read. To that end, please make as many comments as possible on your favorite posts so that the most thought-provoking and critical analysis is center stage.
Basic Rules
Pseudonyms are encouraged, but use a real email address (web or otherwise) in the interests of good moderation. Your email will not be published or shared with anyone other than the editors.
Editors reserve the right to remove comments and posters at our discretion, and to put commenters on moderation and/or ban for what they post. Examples of items we will remove, and reasons we will moderate/ban commenters:
- Racist, sexist, classist language or language that is otherwise oppressive.
- Offensive or triggering language or words aimed at marginalizing communities, movements, people, authors, commenters and others.
- Flaming, trolling red-baiting, personal attacks, slander, distortion, derailing and other disrespectful rhetorical tactics.
- Political factionalism or sectarianism.
- Comments disclosing personal information about authors, contributors or other commenters, including full names, street addresses, phone numbers, etc.
- Language suggesting violence aimed at an author or commenter.
- Grammar and spelling nitpicking aimed at derailing an idea or discrediting the writer.
- Comments policing race, class, gender and/or other status.
- Personal remarks about an author or commenter intended to derail and/or stand in for engagement of political ideas.
- Dominating comment threads, especially by lecturing others.
There is no second strike, so please respect the rules.
If editors decide that a comment has merit, but contains objectionable language, it may be edited to redact the language, leaving the rest of the comment intact.
Long Version
The purpose of the site is the promotion and analysis of struggles against oppression around the world. It does this through news, as well as through the study of current and past struggles, using concrete analysis of national liberation struggles and class struggles. Your comments should be geared towards that goal. In other words, keep the discussion political.
Please follow the principle of unity – criticism – unity: “To elaborate, that means starting from the desire for unity, resolving contradictions through criticism or struggle, and arriving at a new unity on a new basis” (Mao Zedong).
If you are unfamiliar a subject, but want to make a critical comment, first read the thread carefully, then think about the material being presented, and listen. The same goes for playing oppression olympics (so-and-so is worse off, etc.).
This website is not secure. Do not say anything here that you do not feel comfortable telling the government about yourself. WordPress records your I.P. Address if you comment. It is entirely up to you to decide how personally comfortable you are with that.
We also reserve the right to report abusive commenters to their ISPs or relevant law enforcement agencies.
Enforcing these guidelines is done at the editors’ discretion. Under certain circumstances and in certain conversations, editors may apply these guidelines in either a tighter or looser way, as needed by the discussion at hand. Please feel free to write editors if you don’t agree with the way things are handled.
