The Importance of Civility on Patch

Discussions that are evolving on Pine-Richland Patch are causing me great concern because of the tone of some of the posts and the anonymity of posters.

Pine-Richland Patch is dedicated to journalistic integrity. We want our stories to be fair, unbiased and ethical.

We also are dedicated to encouraging public discourse on the issues of the day. Indeed, we want lively, informed discussions and we encourage our readers to post comments.

But we want the discourse to be civil.

Communities thrive when people care about each other, and as such, Patch expects all of its users to be respectful of others. We encourage users of the site to treat others the way they want to be treated.

When you register for Patch, you agree to our Terms of Services that state the following:

“Patch believes in transparency, and we ask that all your registration information be truthful. You may not use any aliases or other means to mask your true identity.”

If you are posting anonymously, please change your information to accurately reflect who you are.

Delivering news digitally is an evolving process – we are learning as we go along in this technological age.

We continue to encourage and support free speech, but we can see now that we must monitor posts to ensure our goal of civility and integrity.

We will do that with our journalistic goal of fairness in mind.

If you have questions or concerns, please email me at cindy.micco@patch.com