How do comments work at Salon?

Salon is a gathering for the stimulating exchange of both ideas and entertainment. At the end of Salon articles you will find an invitation to post a comment, and participate in this exchange. Clicking presents you with a form accommodating your statement of up to 1,000 characters in length. You will not be able to remove your comment later, so give it a quick review before you post. Much like in the classic salons of Paris that made the term famous, we invite you to “delight and educate.” If you have something to tell us that you do not want to have permanently available for public search, you will see there is a way to contact Salon privately on the same page as the submission form.

Please note that you are giving Salon the rights to distribute your comment in perpetuity, and that you take responsibility for the contents, including the accuracy and legality of your statement. If you want to learn more about the legal context, please see our Terms of Service.

How do I register to comment?

First, you must be 13 years or older to comment. Salon asks you to create an ongoing identity so others may get to know you by looking at all your past comments. There are multiple ways to create a login in order to post commentary. You can first log in to your Google or Facebook account, and then claim or create your comments login ID. You can also create or claim your comment name if you are or have been a Salon Premium member in good standing.

Why does Salon want to know my identity?

Salon “Letters” has gone through several stages of evolution to become Salon Comments. Salon experimented with ungated commentary and then with simple email registration. While the volume of interaction was high, there were quality issues arising from such patterns as the registration of multiple fake identities to agree with one another’s viewpoints or the use of one-time anonymous account creation to attempt to harass or libel other members of the Letters community. Because you are taking responsibility for what you say here, we want to be able to contact you behind the scenes if you do not use your everyday name here.

While there is an important role for anonymous comment in the agora of the Internet, there is also a place for standing by your words. This is one such place. We welcome the use of an alternative name here, so long as it is not designed to defraud or defame, and so long as there is a connection to your “real life” should that ever be required.

Salon will never publish your contact information; however, we may contact you via your email address to attempt to resolve a problem. Salon will not provide your contact information to a third party unless you opt in to share it, or we are required by law to disclose it. Consider this if you choose to say things here that could be dangerous to you under a body of laws at some point in time, and note that the courts may not do the right thing.

If you do not feel comfortable with those terms but wish to respond to our stories, we welcome your commentary on other sites that operate with other understandings of identity and access. If you want Salon to reveal significant information that could hurt you if traced to your “real life” identity, you may contact Salon’s editorial team about doing a story with anonymous sources, something we handle with care if the subject is newsworthy.

For additional information about how Salon collects and uses information, read our Privacy Policy.

Offensive comments

You will find comments you disagree with, and we hope that inspires you to think about your viewpoint and theirs. You may also find comments with content that clearly does not belong in the discussion. Salon is not responsible for content that it does not create. However, Salon may take action to remove content that is off-topic, promotional, harassing, defamatory, illegal in purpose, or otherwise inappropriate on a site intended for a general audience. You may flag abusive or otherwise objectionable content for review. Salon may not review all flagged comments and may not agree that all flagged comments are problematic.

Comments may be forever

Your comments may remain publicly readable on Salon in perpetuity, even as apps, devices, platforms and the Internet itself continue to evolve.

Blocking participants

Comments writers who repeatedly have their comments removed as described above, or who have otherwise proven to be a general nuisance, will have their access to make comments suspended. Premium members in this category will not be eligible for refunds, as this is a privilege rather than a service guaranteed by membership.

Closed threads

Comments may be closed at any time, and will typically close after a few days or a large number of responses. After that point, you are welcome to remark on the story elsewhere, for example, on forums, blogs or various social platforms such as Twitter or Reddit.

Question, suggestion or problem?

Contact help (at) salon (dot) com if you have questions or suggestions, or to report problems with comments.