The short version
- Argue the proposition, not the person.
- Cite a source for every factual claim. If you cannot, say it is your judgment.
- Represent the other side accurately. If you cannot state their best argument, you do not understand it yet.
- Disclose an interest. Paid advocacy, a contract with the city, a property you own on the block — say so.
- No campaigning. This is not a place to elect or defeat anyone.
- Keep private things private. Never post someone’s address, phone number, workplace or immigration status.
What a good argument looks like
A good argument on this platform is short, specific and checkable:
Bus lanes will cost businesses on the corridor loading space. The city’s own design shows 14 loading zones removed between 3rd and 9th (staff report, p. 22), and the mitigation plan replaces four of them. Businesses in the 2023 pilot corridor reported a 20% increase in delivery times (city pilot evaluation, p. 8).
Notice what it does: names a consequence, quantifies it, cites a document, and does not tell you what to think about the person who disagrees.
A weak argument asserts a conclusion (“this will destroy small business”), attributes motives (“the council is bought”), or cites nothing at all.
Not allowed
Personal attacks and harassment. Insults, slurs, mockery of someone’s appearance, accent, disability or immigration status, sexual harassment, or following a user from debate to debate to attack them.
Doxxing. Publishing a private person’s home address, phone number, email, employer, family details, vehicle or immigration status. Public officials’ official contact information — the number on the city website — is fine; their home address is not, ever.
Threats and incitement. Any threat of violence, calls to intimidate people at their homes, or organizing to disrupt a public meeting so that others cannot speak.
Hate speech. Attacks on people based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, disability, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation or age.
Fabrication and misrepresentation. Inventing quotes or data, altering documents, citing a source that does not say what you claim, or recycling a claim after it has been checked and marked Disputed without addressing the finding.
Impersonation and astroturfing. Posing as an official, agency, journalist or organization; running duplicate accounts; coordinating votes or signatures; paying for support without disclosure.
Electioneering. Advocating for or against a candidate for office, fundraising for a campaign, or coordinating with a campaign committee. Debating a ballot measure is allowed and encouraged — debating whether to re-elect a council member is not.
Spam and commercial promotion. Repetitive posting, link farming, promoting products or services unrelated to the decision under debate.
Illegal content. Anything unlawful under US law, including material that sexually exploits minors, which is reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and to law enforcement.
Special care around officials and staff
Elected officials are accountable and criticism of their public conduct is the point of this platform. Career staff — a planner, a clerk, a librarian — are not politicians. Criticize the decision, the report or the department; do not make a junior employee the target of a pile-on.
Moderation and enforcement
New accounts are pre-moderated for their first submissions; established accounts post immediately and are reviewed on report. Actions escalate according to severity and history:
| Level | Action |
|---|---|
| 1 | Edit request — the author is asked to add a source or remove a line |
| 2 | Label applied (Disputed) or content hidden pending edit |
| 3 | Content removed with a written reason |
| 4 | Temporary suspension (3–30 days) |
| 5 | Permanent ban, and removal of associated duplicate accounts |
Threats, doxxing, hate speech and content endangering children skip straight to level 5 and, where appropriate, to law enforcement.
Appeals
Every enforcement message contains an appeal link. Appeals are decided by a moderator who was not involved in the original decision, normally within three business days, and the outcome is explained in writing. If you believe a decision reflects political bias, say so in the appeal — those cases are reviewed by the editorial lead and counted in our published moderation statistics.
Reporting
Use the report link on any item, or the Request Fact Check button for accuracy problems specifically. Reports are confidential; the person reported is told what rule was broken, not who reported it. Filing reports in bad faith to silence an opponent is itself a violation.
Why the rules lean toward keeping content up
We remove less than most platforms. A badly argued position that stays up, clearly labeled and answered with evidence, teaches more than the same position deleted — and deletion is exactly what convinces people that the process is rigged. The exceptions are the categories above, where the harm falls on a person rather than on an argument.