Guide to commenting

We invite you to add your comments, and we encourage a thoughtful, open and lively exchange of ideas and information at post-gazette.com. Some content and comments will generate heated discussions, but we expect -- and require -- that the tone of the commentary be civil and respectful.

Your comments will not be screened or edited before they appear on our Web site. We will, however, monitor and review your postings. We reserve the right to remove any comment that the community reports as abusive or the staff at post-gazette.com determines is inappropriate, offensive or in any way violates our Terms of Use.

Those terms state clearly that you must not post comments containing:

- personal attacks, obscenity, vulgarity, profanity or ethnic or racial slurs;

- language that threatens, harasses or encourages illegal or criminal acts;

- material that is defamatory, libelous or infringes on a copyright or trademark;

- solicitations or advertisements for any purpose;

- impersonations of anyone.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and post-gazette.com are not responsible for any content you post. In keeping with our newsroom standards, do not contribute material that you know is inaccurate, false or confidential. Please keep your comments constructive and on topic.

To promote a more respectful discussion, you will be required to provide your first and last names when you register as a user on our site. Your real name will not be published. A separate `Display Name' that you choose will appear with your posting on post-gazette.com. You also will be required to provide an e-mail address to allow a member of the post-gazette.com staff to contact you, should that be necessary.

As a registered user, you will have the opportunity to flag comments that appear to violate the Terms of Use or disrupt discussions.

We also reserve the right to ban permanently users whose online behavior is abusive and flagrantly violates our Terms of Use. Users will be notified by e-mail that their accounts have been cancelled.

Remember that any content you provide becomes the property of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, which has sole discretion over its use. Once it appears on our Web site, it will become available to search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Our policy is that we will not remove postings at the user's request.

Thank you for abiding by our rules of the road. Send questions about our Guide to Commenting to pgnow@post-gazette.com