Your comments....

Welcome to the story comments section of www.tucsoncitizen.com! We've recently made some improvements to our commenting system, and we'd like to share some helpful hints with you:

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All comments are subject to our guidelines (listed below) and our user agreement.

Comment ratings

You can rate other users' comments with a thumbs up/thumbs down rating, using the corresponding buttons that appear beneath each comment. The totals of thumbs up/thumbs down are displayed. Users are limited to one vote per comment and are not allowed to rate their own comments. Any registered user may rate comments.

User Guidelines

You share in the Tucson Citizen community, so please keep your comments smart and civil.

We encourage comments that are articulate, constructive and informative. We try to promote a healthy and creative community conversation, but our readers need to play their part. Debate and disagree, but 'play nice' while you voice your opinion.

The Tucson Citizen does not allow:

• Hate speech. Comments that are blatantly racist, that call for violence against a particular type of person, etc.
• Obscenity. Vulgar or explicit sexually-descriptive language that doesn't raise the level of debate.
• Excessive cursing. Sometimes a well-placed curse word - modified to beat the censors, of course - is just what's needed to drive home a point. We understand that, but we frown on cursing for cursing's sake.
• Excessive personal attacks. We understand that during heated discussion, unkind words may be spoken. We can live with a certain amount of rudeness in the name of provocative conversation, but a pattern of name-calling, mocking, belittling, or baiting is not acceptable nor are threatening or harassing comments.
• Gossip and defamatory remarks. Don't bring up other posters who are not part of the conversation and thus cannot defend themselves.
• Spam. The solicitation of products or services.
• Copyright infringement. Don't quote at length from other sources or violate 'Fair Use.'
• Overposting. Identical comments on multiple stories or repetitive comments that don't further a conversation.

Comments that violate these guidelines may be removed.

Editing

Do we edit user comments? No.

Commentors are responsible for the opinions they express and the accuracy of the information they provide. The content of comments is not edited. Users who violate these standards may lose their privileges on www.tucsoncitizen.com.

Reporting

Citizen editors can't read every post, all the time. Trolls, spammers and other troublemakers can slip past our radar. We rely on our commentors to help us maintain a healthy community conversation.

Our guidelines do not prohibit comments solely because they are heartless, cruel, coarse, mean, foolish or stupid. Disapproval by other commenters can keep those types of comments to a minimum. Ultimately, however, self-policing is the best method. In other words, don't be a jerk.

What can you do if you see something inappropriate in a comment? Use the 'Report' button to send the comment to a moderation queue. Appropriate action will be taken on violations reported to www.tucsoncitizen.com.