Approving comments

We moderate comments on the Fedora Magazine to make sure discussions stay constructive and useful. Some sites do not moderate comments, which usually results in spammers, trolls, or other bad actors creating a less appealing environment. Fedora Magazine editors agree that:

  • The Magazine is not a public place, but rather is like private property where we are holding an open-door event.

  • We want the Magazine to retain a high value to the public and the community — in other words, for all attendees to enjoy the event.

  • We want to discourage bad actors from creating a negative environment — in other words, that the event stays safe for everyone.

Most comments that come in are constructive. Even comments that are critical can be constructive. However, some comments cross a line where they stop being constructive. They may express hostility or include no valuable ideas — or simply may be spam.

Therefore, Magazine editors follow a common set of guidelines to approve comments, and discard those that are not constructive. If you are helping moderate comments, here are some guidelines to follow:

  • Comments that are critical of a technology or article are OK to approve. However, they should offer alternative ideas or suggestions.

  • Comments that criticize an author, or are hostile to a class of people, or put down Fedora in general should be discarded.

  • Comments that point to technologies Fedora doesn’t ship are OK to approve; the site has a legal disclaimer that says content expresses the views of individual authors only.

  • Comments that are indirect spam should be discarded. You can usually recognize these comments because they are very general, do not include any context from the article, and include a product or other suspect URL as an author name and/or site.

  • Duplicate comments should be discarded. (Sometimes comment authors don’t read the text that tells them their comment will be held and moderated.)

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