Policies

To make the Near West Side Story blog a useful and interesting forum for everyone, we have some policies about using the site and leaving comments. Our goal is simply to make sure that people feel comfortable and safe participating, and that the site is a useful resource for everybody interested in the Near West Side of Syracuse. 

Comments Policy

These are standard rules about comments posted to this blog by the public. They are designed to ensure that all users feel comfortable participating, and the blog keeps its focus.

1. Debate should be lively but also constructive and respectful.
2. Don’t incite hatred on the basis of race, religion, gender, nationality, age or sexuality or other personal characteristic.
3. Don’t swear, use hate speech or make obscene or vulgar comments.
4. Don’t break the law. This includes libel or encouraging illegal activity.
5. Don’t submit comments which are substantially material from another website, publication, news feed or blog. Clearly attribute any content from another website or publication or it could constitute a breach of copyright.
6. Don’t spam. Don’t advertise or promote products or services.
7. If you are under 16, please get permission from a parent or guardian before commenting on this blog.
8. Don’t impersonate or falsely claim to represent a person or organization.
9. Protect your privacy and that of others. Please don’t post private addresses, phone numbers, email addresses or other online contact details.
10. Stay on topic. Please don’t post messages that are unrelated to this blog.
11. We will not edit your comments. If there is a problem, we will remove the comment and/or contact you using the email address you put on the comment form. 

Comments are published as soon as your submit them; however, if a comment violates these rules it will be removed. The Near West Side Initiative reserves the right to remove any comment.

Content Disclaimer

Views expressed by the authors, blogger, and commenters are their own and do not represent the views of the Near West Side Initiative, its board members, or its participating organizations. The Near West Side Initiative is not responsible for, and disclaims all liability for, content or comments contributed by authors or users.

Copyright and the law

You own the copyright in your postings, articles and images. If you do not own the copyright for an image you want to upload onto the site, you must ensure that you obtain prior written agreement from the copyright owner, agreeing to publication.

You also agree to grant the Near West Side Initiative a perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive right and license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform, play, and exercise all copyright and publicity rights with respect to any such work worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any media now known or later developed for the full term of any rights that may exist in such content. 

You should remember that you are legally responsible for what you write. By submitting a comment you undertake to indemnify the Hansard Society against any liability arising from breach of confidentiality or copyright, or any obscene, defamatory, or otherwise actionable statement you may make.

Virus protection

The site operators make every effort to check and test material at all stages of production. It is always wise for users to run an anti virus program on all material downloaded from the internet.

The Near West Side Initiative cannot accept any responsibility for any loss, disruption or damage to your data or your computer system which may occur while using material from the website.

Your privacy

Cookies are pieces of data that are often created when you visit a website and are stored in the cookie directory of your own computer. This site uses cookies in order to gather information on user activity on the site, which is used to improve the content on the site. No personal information is collected when you view the site. 

You must enter an email address in order to comment on the blog; we may contact you if there is a question or concern about your comment. However, you will not be added to any mailing lists and your email address will never be shared or sold. 

Other websites linked from this site are not covered by this privacy policy.

Links to and from other websites

This site includes links to other web sites that are not the property of the Near West Side Initiative. These links are provided to give users access to relevant information about the topics on this side, but the Near West Side Initiative is not responsible for the contents or reliability of the external websites and does not necessarily endorse the views expressed within them. Links to external sites should not be taken as endorsement of any kind. We cannot guarantee that these links will work all of the time and we have no control over the availability of the linked pages. 

We encourage others to link to this site, and no permission is required to link to any page in this site. Please tell people about the blog!