A Word About Our Commenting Guidelines

Dear Readers,

We interrupt your regular dose of flash fiction to bring you a special message about our commenting guidelines.

From EDF’s earliest days, we’ve asked our commenters to apply some basic rules of common courtesy and respect in discussing the stories we publish. Even the strongest criticism can be made in a professional and gracious way.

We have a Welcome Page which includes the following:

Guidelines for Commenting on Stories

Everyone is welcome to comment on the stories. You do not need to log in or create an account to do so. Your email address is required but will be kept strictly confidential.

You should be aware that EDF is a magazine, not a workshopping/critique site. We allow reader comments because many authors appreciate the feedback they receive. Feedback as to what specifically worked or did not work for you, and technical analysis that can be applied to the author’s general and future writing, are generally the most valuable comments for our authors. Since any story in EDF has by definition already been published by us, suggestions as to how the author could change or rewrite it are of little practical use.

We don’t expect everyone to like every story, and you’re welcome to comment regardless of whether you liked the piece — differing opinions are a given, and constructive criticism is welcome, but please keep all comments courteous and respectful. We do not tolerate abuse, name-calling, personal attacks, disparaging speculation about anyone’s background/education/lifestyle, etc. The comments are NOT intended as a place for gratuitous cruelty and hurtful put-downs, and while we don’t like to censor anyone, we find ourselves occasionally forced to delete mean-spirited remarks that cross boundaries of respect and common courtesy. People who abuse the privilege of commenting can and will have their nasty comments removed (and, if necessary, their IP addresses flagged as a source of spam). Fortunately, the vast majority of our commenters are helpful and supportive even when delivering a less-than-glowing opinion, and we value that.

Please keep story comments focused on the story in question. General comments for Every Day Fiction should be directed to the editorial team either privately via our contact form or publicly via our community places. Other discussions that segue away from the story can also be transferred to either our Roundtable on Facebook or our Google+ Community to be debated in full without taking away from a discussion of the story at hand.

It should go without saying that advertising and soliciting are not appropriate in story comments for any reason. If you have a new book or story out, or services that you’d like to offer to our community, please talk to us about advertising space — or better yet, send us a story and mention your awesome book/story/service in your bio.

Lately, some of our comment threads have been getting seriously out of hand, to the point that we’re receiving emails of complaint and concern, and it’s not a matter of single comments here and there — entire threads have become mocking and abusive, off-topic and off-colour. Gentle reminders from moderators haven’t been effective. At this point, good authors have become wary of submitting work to EDF, and long-time readers have been put off from coming to the site. This is unacceptable.

To all of our good, kind, respectful readers — please accept my personal apology for letting this distasteful situation get to such a point. It comes to an end today. If you do see something that doesn’t fit with our guidelines above, please do not respond to it or engage in discussion about it but simply report it so it can be removed. EDF should always be a safe and respectful environment for authors and readers alike.

And to anyone who sees fit to continue posting mockery and insensitivity on our site — be warned, it is not welcome here. Deletions and bans will result.

Sincerely,
Camille Gooderham Campbell
Managing Editor

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