Over the last few months, we’ve seen a big increase in traffic across our online sites (Blog, Facebook & Twitter). We’re delighted that so many of you are checking in with Cork Feminista regularly. However, we have noticed that at times things get a little heated and so we have felt the need to create this comments policy.

ALL users, without exception, are expected to get to know these guidelines and stick by them.

We would like to make it clear that the purpose of this is NOT to silence dissenting voices but to create a space where conversation and debate can flourish. The original idea behind Cork Feminista was always to give people a non-judgmental space to explore their views, where they perhaps didn’t have hard and fast opinions about a topic. We would like to stay true to this idea.

So our #1 rule is Have Some Respect. Everyone sitting behind their computer/I phone is a real person with real feelings. Please remember this.

For the Blog:

All comments are moderated. Comments posted which seek only to insult will not be posted. Comments left which disagree with the post at hand will be posted if the comment is a) respectful and b) takes issue with the topic not the writer. Personal comments will not be published.

Where comments are left on posts that have not been written by us (Jen/Linda), we will be very strict about the type of comments we let through. This is because the guest poster is usually a member of the group and is submitting a piece of work to explore a topic not to be vilified on the internet.

For Facebook:

The Facebook page is moderated. We encourage and are delighted to see more and more people commenting on stories. Some general rules of engagement:

-          Disagree with the person’s argument – not the person;

-          Name calling or derisory attitudes to other members will not be tolerated;

-          Jen & Linda can spot a troll at a hundred feet and when we do they are banned;

For Twitter:

Retweet and reply away! If we don’t reply straight away, it’s because we haven’t logged in – not that we are ignoring you! Same rules as above apply.

So as I said, these are general guidelines. Jen & Linda moderate all sites all of the time (Yes, we are omnipresent!) Where we feel a user is purposefully going against this comments policy, we’ll issue a few warnings. If it becomes the case that it continues for a long period of time, we’ll have to ban the person and we would really rather not do that – so please don’t make us.

Feedback/Questions can be sent to us at corkfeminista[@]gmail.com