Comment policy
This is the first Elgin city council election where significant discussion is happening online, whether on this site, other blogs, forums or on the websites of the Courier and the Herald. It’s also the first city council election where most candidates have campaign websites. This means progress, and I’m glad that this blog, The Elginite, is functioning as a forum for civil debate and dialogue between candidates and the public.
There has been, however, some abuse of our system of commenting and it’s important that we bring this up now before we get to the primary and as we go into the general election.
I never had an explicit comment policy, because I thought it was obvious. And in the history of this blog, I have removed I think all of two comments that I thought were abusive. My general inclination is to not enforce any kind of censorship, because I don’t want to discourage dialogue.
But lately, it’s been getting out of hand, and I am getting tired of having to edit people’s comments to reflect the same user name they used in previous posts. If you have been reading comments under the blog posts that have been popular recently, namely the ones dedicated to the Elgin City Council candidates, you may have noticed that some of the names of people commenting have changed. I had to go through and do this, because otherwise it is misleading to our readers.
The practice of posting under different names (sock puppetry) for the purpose of attacking other candidates or promoting your own candidates (astroturfing) is an abuse of our system and community, and those who have been doing it, are asked to stop.
Read the posts and comments to see which names you have been assigned. Likely, it is the name that you used most frequently.
From what I can tell, all of this astroturfing campaign has been directed against council candidates Charlene Sligting and Mike Robins.
So if you are reading through the blog posts dedicated to those candidates, do not be unduly influenced by the negative comments you read. In fact, I am considering deleting some of them that are just ad hominem attacks and unfounded rumors, which do not serve any genuine purpose in civil debate.
I’m aware that some people may have innocent reasons for changing the name under which they post, but please to avoid being labeled as a sock puppet, stick to one user name. The comment form also has a field for a website, and to be most credible, you are advised to provide a link to your website or a site you are otherwise associated with. Providing your actual name would also make your comment more credible.
To everybody else who does not normally post comments, if you are using the comments on this site to learn about candidates, be aware that astroturfing is happening here–despite our best efforts it will continue to happen, and not all comments are credible.
I guess that takes us to the comment policy:
- Stick with one user name
- No ad hominem attacks against anybody
- Don’t post rumors or lies
Now about those comments I was thinking of deleting. Here’s an example. These were all posted by the same person:
hey boxcar did once ask emi out and she said no is that why you are soooo angry w/her and putting her down all the time (you sound were heart broken
hey mike you havent even been elected yet and you already broke one of your promies of not takting any money from anyone and here all your signs say afla endorsed (why because they gave you money) quess i have to chg my vote
hey on sundays forum can we ask charlene the same question…oopps i forgot she got fired from ecc
so again shes putting the blame on someone else
who did she blame for her divorces……..
after talking very bad abt elgin police how does she want thier respect..now im hearing she got fired from her job at ecc(whats all that about)hmmmm sound like maybe she cant work well w/others ………
To delete or not delete? I’d like your opinion.
See also:
Candidates forum Thursday
Brenda Rodgers: City Council Candidate
Al Fernandez: City Council Candidate
Mike Warren: City Council Candidate
Questions for candidates
The SEIU candidates
Upcoming candidate forums
Candidate responses to AFLA questionnaire
City Council Candidates Forum (AFLA)
Linda Quezada: City Council Candidate
Emi Morales: City Council Candidate
John Prigge: City Council Candidate
Lenora Scruggs: City Council Candidate
Mike Robins: City Council Candidate
Charlene Sligting: City Council Candidate
Elgin candidates websites
Elgin City Council elections
Elgin City Council Candidates
Possibly related posts:
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I would immediately delete comments 1, 3, 4, 5.
There is something in common with all of these posts if you read every one carefully. Can anyone tell what it is? I think I know what it is. read EVERY word and maybe you’ll see what I’m talking about…
Keep’em all. I sympathize with your concerns about maintaining the high tone of this important forum but am very grateful for its uninhibited comment policy (as contrasted with the Daily Herald’s comment sections that give the appearance of being open forums but are in reality highly-censored on behalf of certain interests). As the Hamilton-Burr display at the Library indicates, robust and personalized political speech is a great American tradition, even if it could end up with pistols at twenty paces. I’m not endorsing slanderous false statements of fact against individuals (tho comments like the one about boxcar and Morales are so ridiculous as to be beyond consideration as statements of fact) nor am I suggesting that the above comments reflect well upon their authors. But the greater threat to our political welfare comes from censors who suppress expression to protect politicians or other public figures or groups from “offensive” or “hateful” speech. These individuals and groups usually have all the power they need to spin and massage their professionally-crafted public images. Our recent political history would seem to confirm that we are at greater risk of electing rascals to public office than hurting the feelings of honest candidates with robust speech. Unless you fear some liability for your blog from publishing something, please keep it as open as possible so that everyone can see what Elginites are saying and thinking, warts and all, during this election season.
I’m not one for censorship, so I personally probably wouldn’t delete many, if any, of those. Maybe #1 since it’s pure taunting and #4 since it is mean spirited and not at all relevant.
I do think it’s very shady to have one IP address leaving multiple comments under different names. In that case, I would be very tempted to change the names to something identifying. It depends how your tracking works, but if you could write “Elgin Comcast Customer #1″ or something, that might make them feel a little more exposed.
This could be especially telling if the person is leaving comments from work, or a different city. It’d up their odds of being outed, and probably lower the amount of fake comments meant to bash.
Delete comment 1.
They are all about character assassination. Bad to do, and Boxcar, while don’t agree with some of your posts, you should not be personally attacked. Besides there is enough fodder in your rhetoric to disagree with.
It is not okay for one person to create multiple “names” and leave multiple comments to have us think less of a person.
If it does not edify then delete it. That’s my 2 cents. As for multiple logins…we have a computer in the corner of our kitchen, next to the family room. It’s the hub of our home. My spouse, teenage son and College daughter and I are bloggers. We have different log ins. We know each other’s logins. For this month we are on Elginite.org caus we know some of the candidates. Could one person create multiple names? no doubt but keep in mind more than one person could be using same computer and forget to chg the email or login name.
Thanks for the feedback, everybody. I think that since expectations should now be clear, we can continue the policy of no censorship. So comments will not be deleted.
BLAST those comments off this website! Very inappropriate. Sun-Times, Trib, Wall Street Journal would never publish such comments.
I assume this website was created with the sole purpose of uniting us Elginites & break down the barriers so that we can build a stronger community, regardless of our “partyâ€ÂÂ, opinions, religion, creed, ethnic, etc. I also assume that the creator or creators of this website are volunteers.
However, all the hard labor & effort put into this website can easily be torn down in a heartbeat if someone is deeply offended & files a lawsuit. Therefore, censorship is an issue. It’s our responsibility as commentators to respect & refrain from personal attacks.
If anyone has legal dirt on these candidates, take it to the Election Board or the media; or create your own uncensored website and write whatever you want at your risk.
As a concerned citizen & voter, I do my own research but also depend on feedback from my community, which is YOU. Spare the details & stick to the facts, Pros ‘n Cons of issues. If a candidate is Pro-AFLA, simply state that you’re voting for so-and-so because of their stance on AFLA.