LorainCounty.com
Conversation Forums
The LorainCounty.com Conversation Forums are designed to provide a robust and free-flowing exchange of information, ideas and opinions with the goal of helping to improve the quality of life in Lorain County. The Forums provide citizens an opportunity to dialog on the issues that affect their lives.
In the past 8 years, over 250,000 messages have been posted and thousands of topics have been discussed. The Forums have become a platform for the exchange of community opinions and have directly impacted local decision-making.
The following Conversation Forum guidelines were created with extensive input from LorainCounty.com users.
Community Values
It is important to establish community values that every member of the community can agree
to. This will help new users as well as established users.
Community Values
- We believe people are basically good
- We respect everyone as unique individuals
- We recognize the importance of listening to other people’s point of view
- We respect everyone’s right to believe differently
- We believe in an honest, open environment to dream about our future
- We are committed to strengthening the community
Community Standards
Just like in society, the LorainCounty.com community has a set of community standards of
acceptable behavior. These standards enable members of the community to interact with each
other in a productive and mutually beneficial environment. These standards also minimize cases
of abuse.
- Inappropriate language and/or material will be unacceptable, including but not limited
to:
- Language that is obscene, indecent, or offensive.
- Material that is defamatory, abusive, harassing, or hateful.
- Material that is encrypted, constitutes junk mail or unauthorized advertising.
- Material that invades anyone's privacy, or encourages conduct that would constitute
a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or that otherwise violates any local, state,
national or international law or regulation.
- Personal attacks are unacceptable. We discuss ideas and issues, not people.
- Conversations must be local in nature. All conversations will focus on local issues
and/or the local impact of broader issues. We will focus our energy where we can have the
greatest impact.
- Each person is responsible for his or her words and should be careful about making comments
that could be libelous or slanderous. If you are unsure, please consult your attorney before
posting a message.
Community Membership
Everyone who posts a message in the LorainCounty.com Conversation Forums is required to be a
registered member of LorainCounty.com. Membership requires a valid e-mail address and basic
personal information. Users can create their own Username, which protects their anonymity,
while the Membership and valid e-mail ensures accountability. Any user who posts messages that
do not conform to the Community Standards will be subject to Membership suspension.
To help New Members understand the Community Values and Standards; their messages are
reviewed prior to release on LorainCounty.com. After demonstrating an understanding of the
Community Standards and Values, New Members become Active Members and their posts appear
immediately on LorainCounty.com.
Accountability
An Accountability Statement must be agreed to before posting a message to the Forums. The
Accountability Statement emphasizes the personal responsibility of each person. Making it clear
that they and they alone are responsible for the contents of their post and that they should
contact their attorney before posting any message that may be considered libelous or slanderous.
Reputation Flagging
On March 27, 2007, LorainCounty.com began a new experiment in the Conversation Forums called
'Reputation Flagging'. Under this experiment, users of LorainCounty.com have the ability to flag
posts that they feel abuse the Community Standards. When a post has been flagged enough times,
it will automatically be removed from the site. Safeguards have been added to try and ensure
that points of view are heard and that one side does not 'remove' posts from an opposing
viewpoint. For more information on Reputation Flagging,
click here.
Community Policing
With clearly stated Community Values and Standards, the Accountability Statement and
Membership process, we expect that abusive posts to be rare. But, to ensure the quick removal
of abusive posts, an obvious “report abuse” button is included at the end of every post. This
enables any LorainCounty.com Member to quickly and easily report an abusive post.
Informed Conversation
To help Members stay on top of local legislation and debate, LorainCounty.com is beginning
to add additional local information to the web site. Information including Agendas and Meeting
Minutes for Council Meetings, Commissioner’s Meetings and School Board Meetings. If you have
suggestions for public information to be added to LorainCounty.com, please let us know.
Topics Created by Members
Each member can start a topic of conversation. This will enable users to decide the topics
of interest and will keep the conversations as current as possible.
Make it Easier to Listen
The Conversation Forums display multiple messages on a single web page to enable users to
quickly and easily read other Members’ messages.
Privacy
The founders and team members of LorainCounty.com are dedicated and committed to protecting
the privacy of Members who properly utilize the Conversation Forums. Information on individual
members will only be released in cases of egregious abuse or for an official request (police,
court). Information will never be released solely based on the political orientation/opinion
of the message.
Your Feedback
The LorainCounty.com Conversation Forums can be an exciting and powerful way for community
members to engage each other, dream about the future of our County and work together to
achieve a better future.
We value your input and would like to hear your comments. Please share your thoughts in any
of the following ways:
Web: http://www.LorainCounty.com/forums/
E-mail: EdSkimin@LorainCounty.com
Telephone: (440) 284-3653
