Keeping online discussions productive

This is a statement about online collegiality  and respect that Doug Ward uses in his online classes in Digital Content Strategy. Feel free to use it or adapt it.

As with all live and online discussion, please be considerate of others. Appreciate others’ differences and differences of opinion. Don’t berate others’ thoughts or comments. By all means, challenge assumptions and interpretations, but do so in a collegial manner. Great ideas often evolve from disagreement, but no one is served by put-downs and snarky commentary. We all have different levels of knowledge depending on the topic, so be helpful and use common sense. Also keep in mind that written comments can come across in unintended ways. Again, be considerate.

This policy from a site called The Conversation is an excellent guide to interacting online.

I want our conversations to be free-flowing, and I don’t anticipate any problems. I reserve the right to take down comments that use vulgar language, that are hurtful or show disrespect to others.