All members of The Urban Twist share a common interest in protecting the integrity of our site and community. By creating an account, you agree to abide by this Code of Conduct and our Terms of Use. While our code is, in fact, a set of guidelines, any deliberate violation of the following points – especially those that harm other members – will result in a loss of site privileges.
The Urban Twist members will not:
- post stories or comments in which they have a financial interest or post content with an explicitly commercial purpose (including spam and link spam);
- plagiarize the work of others, fail to acknowledge source material, or use images that belong to others without their permission;
- abuse, threaten or verbally attack other members, individuals, or The Urban Twist staff. You know how bullies work. We’ll do our best to spot them and get rid of them;
- post libelous, obscene or pornographic material or content that contains racist, sexist, homophobic and other slurs;
- deliberately post stories that are untrue, false, or misleading, that impersonate someone else or that make false representations about the poster him/herself;
- or break the law in pursuit of, or during, the composition or capture of a story, photo or video.
The Urban Twist members will:
- be accountable for stories they post and follow up by correcting known errors;
- resist attacks, insults, and threats and instead remain civil and focused on the ideas being presented rather than the individuals expressing them;
- promote interactivity and dialogue that supports real community collaboration.
The Urban Twist’s Anti-Flaming/Baiting Policy:
“Flaming is the hostile and insulting interaction between Internet users. An Internet user typically generates a flame response to other posts or users posting on the site and is usually not constructive, does not clarify a discussion and does not persuade others. Sometimes, flamers attempt to assert their authority, or establish a position of superiority over other users.” – Wikipedia
Flamers tend to end conversations by entering them; they create a hostile environment in which real discourse is quashed in favour of insults and abuse. We won’t stand for it as our Terms of Use make clear. For TheUrbanTwist.com’s purposes, flaming is most prevalent in comments and in the forum. Deciding who is or isn’t a flamer, and how that contributor will be handled, is at the final and sole discretion of TheUrbanTwist.com staff.
It all comes down to Common Sense and Common Ground. Once a user has been pinpointed as a flamer, (one or more instances of obvious flaming, and/or reported flaming from other site users) we:
- send the user a warning indicating that they’re at risk of forfeiting their membership. Sometimes we may also or instead post a comment in the thread;
- observe the user for signs of reform or response. Should the user reform or respond and apologize, they will be given another chance;
- Should he or she ignore staff or continue the behavior , we will revoke his/her status or block the account.
TheUrbanTwist.com is a community that values intelligence and openness. Our users need not subscribe to hate speech, abusive or inflammatory behavior in order to get a point across. You are a member of a community that is more than willing to support and elevate you and your work if you command respect. Remember the golden rule: Treat others as you wish to be treated.
This code of conduct was created by consulting a wide range of material available online. Here are the main sources that inspired us:
- A Code of Blogging Ethics by Martin Kuhn from the University of North Carolina.
- The New York Times Code of Ethics. This is post-Jayson Blair; it is impressive.
- The Cyberjournalist’s Code of Ethics by Jonathan Dube
- The Principles of Journalism by Kovach and Rosenstiel. This is a truly inspired, thought-provoking list, and the book is even better.
- The Ethics of Online Journalism by the USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review
- NewsTrust Ratings – this is a list of criteria used by reviewers at NewsTrust
- The Principles of Citizen Journalism compiled by the Knight Citizen News Network.
- Draft Blogger’s Code of Conduct by Tim O’Reilly.
