FAQ: Comments & Moderation

Q: What is the Huffington Post's Comment Policy?

Huffington Post pre-moderates comments on our blog posts and post-moderates comments on news stories. We never censor comments based on political or ideological point of view. We only delete those comments that include the following transgressions:

• are abusive, off-topic, use excessive foul language
• include ad hominem attacks including comments that celebrate the death or illness of any person, public figure or otherwise
• contain racist, sexist, homophobic and other slurs
• are solicitations and/or advertising for personal blogs and websites
• thread spamming (you've posted this same comment elsewhere on the site
• are posted with the explicit intention of provoking other commenters or the staff at Huffington Post.
• contains content that may infringe the copyright or intellectual property rights of others or other applicable laws or regulations.

Q: I posted a comment. Why can't I see it on the site?

A: There are two scenarios for which your comment may not appear:
1. It may be pending approval. Comments on the blog are moderated BEFORE they appear on the site, and this takes time. Since the volume of comments on the site has grown rapidly, there is often a delay between a comment being posted and it being approved, especially during peak hours. We appreciate your patience and ask that you refrain from posting the same comment repeatedly.

2. Your comment violated the policy above. We pride ourselves in providing a medium for engaging and thought-provoking stories and encourage our users to speak their minds freely, provided comments fall within our commenting policy. We must respect our writers and protect them from vicious and inflammatory comments. They too are entitled to free speech- the right to share their opinions without being subject to scathing and mean-spirited remarks.

Q: Why am I blocked from commenting on Huff Post?
A: There are a few scenarios in which a comment might be blocked:

1. A comment is extremely abusive, off-topic, uses excessive foul language, or includes an ad hominem attack
2. If a commenter has previously posted comments that are abusive, off-topic, used excessive foul language, or include ad hominem attacks, a Huff Post moderator may decide to ban the commenter's IP address. This means the abusive commenter is banned from commenting on the site in the future, even if the later comments are not abusive. We ban IPs because the sheer volume of comments makes it too time consuming to individually delete comments written by someone with a pattern of abuse.

Q: Can I include HTML in my comments?
A: We remove all html from comments to preserve formatting consistency.

Q: If you don't allow any HTML, how can I include a link in my comment?
A: If you include a URL in your comment, it will be converted to a link. Please note, comments containing links to personal blogs and other inappropriate sites will be deleted. ONLY links to relevant news stories or sites are acceptable.

Q: There is a comment that I find insulting and in violation of your policy. What can I do?
A: You can flag the comment as abusive by pressing the Flag As Abusive link below the comment. This alerts our moderators and delete the comments that don't comply with our policy.

Q: What is the I'm A Fan OF link?
A: When you find a commenter you like, you can press the I'm A Fan Of link next to the commenter's name. Your vote will appear on your profile page and on the profile page of that commenter. This way you can keep track of the commenters you like and who likes you. We are working on a way to alert you when your favorite commenters post new comments on the site.

Q: What does the Favorite link mean?
A: If you think a comment is particularly great, you can select it as a favorite. This will help us track the best commenters on the site.

Q: Can I become a fan of a blogger?
A: Absolutely. Each blogger has their own profile page that includes their bios and a I'm A Fan Of link. You can find this page by clicking on a the bloggers name.

Q: Can I print comments?
A: Unfortunately, there is no way to print comments right now. We are building a feature that will let you print comments but for the time being, you can copy and paste them into another program and print them from there.

Do you have another question that was not answered here?
You can check our FAQ: HuffPost Accounts
or you can email us at updates@huffingtonpost.com. Please remember there is a real person reading and answering your emails. We want to hear from you, but if your email is rude, mean and/or inflammatory, it won't be answered.