CafeSongbook.com Discussion Rules*
We are anxious to provide a forum for those of you who wish to add to the information and discussions we have presented on CafeSongbook.com. Still, it is necessary for those of you who wish to help us tell the story of The Great American Songbook to do it in a fashion consistent with our standards (no pun intended). Even if The following seems a bit stuffy or censorious, it is the official discussion policy that will be used to govern the selection of comments submitted to Cafe Songbook for publication on the site and must be adhered to. All would-be participants in CafeSongbook.com comments forums are required to follow these rules and guidelines. Comments submitted that do not comply will not be published; however, even those that do will not necessarily appear on the site. Publication is at the sole discretion of CafeSongbook.com.
We are most interested in comments that add substance to the discussion of a song, songwriter or performer. Your comment may emphasize facts about one of the above, a personal experience with a song, songwriter or performer or anything you feel is relevant. We also appreciate corrections to material already on CafeSongbook.com.
Be Civil. If you can't say what you have to say civilly, don't say it. If your comment takes up a controversial issue and/or includes strong opinions, no problem. If you want it to be published, however, figure out how to express those (or any) views in a civil fashion. Keep it within the boundaries of the inoffensive -- and that means inoffensive by our conservative standards: Do not include personal attacks, name calling, libellous language, defamation of character, etc. If you feel the need to be hateful, obscene, mean, or otherwise obnoxious, submit your comment elsewhere. Under no circumstances will we publish anything that could be taken as "threatening, harassing, bullying, obscene, pornographic, sexist or racist."*
Anything you submit should be primarily your own work. If you include information or quotations from sources other than your own experience or knowledge, please indicate your source. Hyperlinks are not allowed in comments but you may include an unlinked URL to a site if you think it would be helpful to other visitors to Cafe Songbook. Quotations ahould be brief and include their source. Any borrowed material should be in line with generally accepted principles of fair use and copyright law.
Length is not necessarily bad. As long as you are making a valuable contribution to your subject, reasonable length (up to 750 words) is permissible; but if you go on ad nauseum or stray significantly from you subject, you are much less likely to appear on this website. We reserve the right to edit for brevity, clarity and other purposes.*
Privacy must be respected. Inclusion of phone numbers, e-mail addresses or other contact information is prohibited.
Please, no advertising, promotion, recruiting, campaigning, lobbying, or soliciting. (If you wish to advertise on this site, please contact us via the email link below.)
You are solely responsible for the content you submit. If we publish your submission, Cafe Songbook is not responsible for the content included. If we recognize something is erroneous or otherwise untrue or deemed inappropriate for CafeSongbook.com, we will simply not publish the comment. We reserve the right not to publish anything submitted, for whatever reason we see fit. If, however, we do publish something submitted that a third party finds objectionable, we will not be held responsible for it.
These guidelines may be changed by us at any time.
*These guidelines are based on the guidelines for making posts on NPR.org. Some specific language has been adapted or otherwise included. We appreciate their wise approach to a difficult and complicated process. |