FROM January 1 2012, readers who submit comments to Cairns.com.au must provide their full name and a suburb or town before comments are considered for publication.

Why has our comment policy changed? Read our explanation and have your say 

1. Readers who submit comments must provide their full name (first name & surname) and suburb.

2. All comments must include a genuine email address (which will not be published).

3. We reserve the right to confirm readers’ identities by contacting them via email.

4. We do not tolerate personal attacks, racism, sexism, ageism, homophobia or other forms of hate-speech in any form.

5. Comments are rejected if they are off-topic. Please try and keep comments relevant.

6. Comments are rejected if they are abusive, offensive, or contain personal or cultural insults. Mindless abuse will not be tolerated: our goal is an inclusive space marked by intelligent debate.

7. Comments are rejected if they defame, harass, stalk, threaten, or otherwise violate the legal rights of others. Please respect others’ views and beliefs, even if they disagree with your own. Consider how your comments impact on others before submitting.

8. Comments are rejected if they contain swearing, offensive language or hate of any kind, either openly or implied. Strong opinions are good, flame-wars are not. We don’t want to limit debate, but we ask our commentators to share their views in a non-threatening way.

9. Comments are rejected if they post, distribute or disseminate any defamatory, infringing, obscene, indecent, misleading or otherwise unlawful material or information, including material that puts us in breach of copyright. We immediately remove anything that could put us in legal difficulties.

10. Comments are rejected if they are viewed to be unwanted, unsolicited messages or commercial advertising. We remove any posts that are obviously commercial or otherwise resemble spam. We discourage businesses from posing as individuals to promote their organisation.

11. Comments are rejected if they contain clear errors of fact.

12. Comments are rejected if they are repetitious or meaningless.

13. Comments are published on merit and at Cairns.com.au’s discretion.

14. Cairns.com.au reserves the right to block, edit or delete any comment, at our discretion.

15. Finally, while we accept criticism, we will not allow persistent misrepresentation of The Cairns Post or Cairns.com.au.

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