Policies

Copyrights: All original material at High Plains Pundit is copyrighted by Dan Butcher and High Plains Pundit. Copyrights to materials quoted from other sources remain with their original owner. Permission to quote excerpts is granted with the proviso that credit must be given and, where practicable, hyperlinked back to the URL containing the post.

Commenting: Commenting on recent posts is open to encourage thoughtful discussion of the ideas posted on this site. We welcome open debate and viewpoints that differ from those of the post authors. Quite often, the back-and-forth causes us to change our views.

That said, we wish to keep the conversation civil and the following policies, subject to change without notice, apply:

Remember that the people under discussion are human beings. Comments that contain personal attacks about the post author or other commenters will be deleted. Repeated violators will be banned. Challenge the ideas of those with whom you disagree, not their patriotism, decency, or integrity.

The use of profanity stronger than that normally permitted on network television is prohibited. A substantial number of people read this site from an office or in a family environment.

While any comment deemed abusive or offensive may be deleted without warning or appeal by the post author, the following will almost always be deleted:

Comments that are completely off topic.

Comments, especially long ones, that are posted on multiple sites for propaganda purposes.

Trackbacks from posts that do not link back to the post that received the trackback.

Trackbacks from what appear to be spam blogs.

Duplicate trackbacks to the same post.

Comments that advocate violence towards posters, commenters, private, government officials, or pretty much anyone not strongly suspected of terrorism, violent crime, or a declared enemy of the United States.

Comments that contain personal information about others such as home addresses and personal phone numbers.

Any form of trolling, defined as comments that appear intended to send the discussion in a fruitless direction, including repeated raising of only tangentially related points.

A note about Hate Speech:  We’re open to a broad discussion about race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, culture, and related issues and will generally not delete controversial comments regardless of our own disagreement. Regardless, comments that reach into any of these areas may be deleted and commenters warned or banned:

Advocacy of violence on racial, gender, or ethnic grounds

Use of ethnic, racial, or gender slurs

Trolling on these topics.

Additionally, comments containing too many hyperlinks will automatically go into the moderation queue. Comments by other bloggers are welcome, as are relevant links to your blogs, other blogs, or media articles that relate to the topic at hand. Do not, however, simply use the comment section to post links to your site without otherwise adding to the discussion. Doing so will be considered spamming.

A note on pseudonyms:  In an ideal world, Internet conversations would happen under our real names and likenesses. That would both make it easier to see each other as people rather than as targets but also tend to induce more caution than posting under the cloak of anonymity. That said, there are legitimate reasons people need to protect their identity. We ask that those who can’t post under their name establish a pseudonym, sign up for a Gravatar with an associated email account, and stick with that pseudonym over time. Doing this at least establishes a modicum of an identity in the community.  Relatedly, commenters who post under pseudonyms—or who frequently change pseudonyms—will be scrutinized more closely than those who post under a “real” name with an associated email address, simply because the presumption that they are trolls is heightened.

Each individual author is responsible for monitoring the comments to their posts, and ultimately determines which comments merit deletion. Since the approval and moderation system is automated, it is possible that your e-mail address or domain will be placed on system-maintained whitelists or blacklists. If for some reason you find yourself unable to comment due the anti-spam software please notify the editor and we’ll investigate.

E-Mail: The Publisher and individual post authors can be contacted at addresses listed on the Contact page. The content of these messages, including the identity of the sender, is presumed for publication unless otherwise requested. Each comment and trackback to the site generates an email to the Publisher. Additionally, he receives numerous other communications related and not related to the site. The combination of these means he receives several hundred messages daily; he can not respond to all of them. This is especially true of pitches for links from other sites. He does endeavor, with reasonable success, to read all messages that get past his spam filter.

User Privacy: See the detailed High Plains Pundit Privacy Policy page.

DCMA Compliance Notice: High Plains Pundit will process notices of alleged infringement which it receives and will take appropriate actions as required by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (the “DMCA”) and other applicable intellectual property laws. Pursuant to the DMCA, notifications of claimed copyright infringement should be sent to High Plains Pundit’s Designated Agent. Name/Contact Information of Designated Agent:

Dan Butcher E-mail: hppundit@gmail.com Mailing Address: Provided upon e-mail request.

To be effective, the notification must be in writing and contain the following information (DMCA, 17 U.S.C., Sect. 512(c)(3))

1. Physical or electronic signature of a person authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed; 2. Identification of the copyrighted work claimed to have been infringed, or, if multiple copyrighted works at a single online side are covered by a single notification, a representative list of such works at that site; 3. Identification of the material that is claimed to be infringing or to be the subject of infringing activity and that is to be removed or access to which is to be disabled, and information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to locate the material; 4. Information reasonably sufficient to permit the service provider to contact the complaining party, such as an address, telephone number, and, if available, an electronic mail address at which the complaining party may be contacted; 5. A statement that the complaining party has a good faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; 6. A statement that the information in the notification is accurate, and under penalty of perjury, that the complaining party is authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.