User policy

You agree to abide by the terms of this agreement whenever you use this Web site’s user-contribution features, including comments, blogs, or any other feature.

Please read this agreement in its entirety because it contains information that will help you understand the rules and general "good manners" that are expected when contributing content to this Web site.

We want to encourage an open exchange of information and ideas. But if you use inappropriate language (even when typographically obfuscated), or make potentially slanderous or libelous comments when using this site and its features, or engage in ad hominem attacks on fellow commenters, people mentioned in stories, contributors or any employee of the Victoria Advocate, we reserve the right (but assume no obligation) to remove any and/or all of your contributions. If you become a problem for us or our site's other users we may ban you from using our services and Web sites.

Comments are the sole responsibility of the person posting them.

By commenting, you agree not to upload, post, distribute, e-mail or otherwise publish or make available any comments that are derogatory of others on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual preference or disability. Comments may not be defamatory, obscene, harmful, vulgar, threatening, tortuous, harassing, abusive, invasive of another’s privacy, hateful or otherwise illegal material.

You also agree not to advertise or not to solicit anyone to buy or sell products or services or to make donations of any kind, without our express written approval.

Please be aware that we DO NOT review every contribution made on this Web site. More than likely, you will see user contributions before anyone on staff here does. This may include information and opinions from a variety of individuals and organizations other than official content from this Web site and its staff.

We believe it is absolutely possible for people from a variety of points of view to discuss issues in a civil manner; and we reserve the right, but assume no obligation, to remove comments and ban accounts of users that foster incivility.

We may ban any user, or delete any post, or take any action with regard to this Website's user submitted content.

• Contributions must be civil and tasteful, not mean-spirited or contributed with the intention of causing trouble.
• Be civil to each other. No personal attacks, name-calling, stalking or harassing another user.
• No disruptive, offensive or abusive behavior
• Stay on topic
• No instigating or encouraging others to commit illegal activities or cause injury or property damage to any person.
• Do not use ethnic or racial slurs, or attacks against someone for their sexual orientation or religion
• No profanity or vulgar language
• No spamming or off-topic material: we don't allow the submission of the same or very similar contributions many times. Please don't re-submit your contribution to more than one discussion, or contribute off-topic material in subject-specific areas.
• No flooding of comments or blogs. Please limit your blog postings to one every 6 hours.
• No advertising or promoting.
• Do not threaten violence against anyone
• No stating of unsubstantiated information as fact.
• No uploading or posting any off-topic or irrelevant material.
• URLs (web site addresses) can only be posted if allowed under any relevant local house rules.

Each user may have only one username. If you would like to change your username, please e-mail us. Use or possession of multiple usernames may result in our banning your user account or accounts.

Your account may not contain usernames which are objectionable, even those which utilize typographical obfuscations. We reserve the right to remove postings from usernames which themselves might be considered objectionable. We also reserve the right to ban accounts with usernames which are in themselves objectionable.

Users agree not to knowingly give out any private information about other users. Users who engage in the behavior of continually trying to guess other user's private information may be banned and their account and contributions removed.

Avatars - Those images must be images for which the user holds the copyright or has the permission of the copyright holder to use. The images must not contain any graphic images and must meet common standards of decency. If the images do not meet those standards or are a violation of copyright, we reserve the right to remove images without notice. Repeated use of avatars in violation of our policy will result in the users account being banned from our Web site.

We retain the right to revoke access privileges of anyone who we believe has violated any of the terms outlined here or if such user is deemed a problem to either the site or its other users. We also reserve the right to ban any user and prevent his or her comments from showing up on this Website, without notice. Banned members found creating additional accounts will be banned.