COMMUNITY GUIDELINES

Supercomputing welcomes a lively and courteous discussion here, so we do not pre-screen comments before they post. Also note that anything you post may be used, along with your name and profile picture, per our Privacy Policy and the license you have granted according to our Terms of Service. Please be professional.

Every day, people across the world participate by leaving comments, uploading videos, recommending stories to friends, and more.

These are the ground rules for all that activity:

What We're Here For.

It's simple. At Supercomputing, we've known for a long time that our work is better when we don't pretend we have all the answers ourselves. So we're here to share what we know, listen, talk, discuss, and get to a closer understanding of the space. Together.

Play Nice.

Our sweet mid-western mothers would put it this way: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. But since we're based in Miami, where the sway of our sweet mothers has given way to the more cosmopolitan approach of a global city, we'll say it like this: be polite. Address others the way you would want to be addressed. No name-calling, no personal attacks.

Be Thoughtful, Be Truthful, and Be Relevant.

There are a few things we just won't tolerate - obscenities, threats, hate speech, material that's ethnically or racially offensive, abusive comments, and spam, to name a few. You can see a complete list of what's not accepted in the terms of service.

If You See Something, Say Something.

If you spot a comment you think violates these guidelines (or violates a guideline we haven't written yet, but should), please let us know. There's a little "report abuse" button next to every comment and every video. Clicking it will tell our moderators they should check it out. And if enough people click the "report abuse" button, the material will be temporarily hidden until someone can review it.

How moderation works.

For the most part, comments and videos post immediately and may be removed following community flagging or for other reasons. We call this approach "post-moderation." We believe in post-moderation because it allows for near real-time discussion and fosters real conversation. From time to time, though, moderators may choose to limit some conversations to pre-moderation (meaning a human reads each comment before it posts) or to cut off comments altogether on particularly sensitive or controversial topics where the discussion devolves into ugliness.

Comments that include links do not appear on the site unless a moderator has reviewed them. We can't always get to everything, so if your comment doesn't make it to the site, that might be why.

When We Say We're In It Together, We Mean It.

Many comments have generated follow-up stories for Supercomputing -- a lot of you have personal experiences, tips, tricks, or sources, and we have our video team and many of our producers, editors, and reporters reading and participating in the comments, always labeled as Staff. We may contact you if you have an insight we want to explore further - we'll do this by emailing you at the address connected to your account (or, if you've included your phone number in your profile, we'll call). Or if you want to contact us directly with a tip, send an email here: editorial@supercomputingonline.com.

This Is A Work In Progress.

We'll probably adjust these guidelines as we go. If you have a suggestion, drop us a line. The folks looking after commenting are the same people behind the video section. You can catch us all at email: editorial@supercomputingonline.com, or join our roundtable chat on the blogs.

That's it, folks. Above all, we're after a lively and thoughtful conversation about the news of our world. Be insightful, concise, and kind. We look forward to more great conversations, together.