How Online

Editorial Policy

We intend HOW Online to be a lively meeting of the minds, a vibrant discussion of the new importance of human conduct and human interrelationships to the ongoing journey toward successful and significant endeavor in the 21st century. You are invited to join us in this discussion, to contribute your thoughts, feelings and reflections on this vital and growing topic. We hope that you do, and that this interchange proves useful and informative.

Participation
If you would like to participate, we ask that you embrace and honor the core values that govern our discussion: Respect, Transparency, and Authenticity. All decisions regarding the publication of comments and content to this site will be made by the HOW Online editorial team with deep consideration toward upholding these values in everything we do. We ask that you give the same consideration to the material you submit.

Values
In order to clarify how we currently think about our values, we’d like to list some of the ideas we believe flow from them. Many of the thoughts that follow reflect the Blogger’s Code of Conduct, an effort to articulate a values-based, self-governing approach to online community participation. We embrace The Code creators’ desire to further open dialog among people who respect each other.

Agree to Disagree
We strive to post high-quality, acceptable content. We take responsibility for our own words and ask other to do so as well. We “agree to disagree” and strive to conduct all discussion in a civil and respectful manner. At all times, we respect each other’s right to speak our minds.

Comments
As an edited publication, we reserve the right to restrict or remove comments on our blog that do not conform to these standards or uphold our values. We believe unacceptable comments include (but are not limited to) any that:

* are being used to abuse, harass, stalk, or threaten others
* are libelous or knowingly false
* infringe upon any copyright, trademark or trade secret of any third party. (We respect the rights of original creators. If you quote or excerpt someone’s content, please provide proper attribution to the original author. For a clear definition of proper attribution and fair use, please see The Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Legal Guide for Bloggers.)
* violate an obligation of confidentiality
* violate the privacy of others
* intentionally or unwittingly do harm

We define and determine what is “unacceptable content” on a case-by-case basis, and our definitions are not limited to this list.

Transparency
Because we embrace transparency as well, we pledge to note and explain our reasons for the editorial manipulation or deletion of any comment or link. This publication is owned by a company, LRN, which has ongoing commercial interests and relationships. We will disclose proactively as soon as they come to our attention any commercial relationships that might effect or appear to effect the content we publish. We have nothing to hide, seek to hide nothing, and conduct the business of this site in the clear light of day.

Anonymity
We invite you to think out loud, to share your thoughts and reflections, and to transparently participate in the discussion. We will identify ourselves clearly and ask that you honestly identify yourself before participating.

We believe that, in most cases, anonymous or pseudonymous comments are inconsistent with our values and will ask you to provide a valid email address before allowing you to post. If you betray the community trust and misidentify yourself, we reserve the right to reveal that information if we feel it serves the community’s interests.

After identifying yourself, should you wish to contribute something to the discussion that you desire to remain anonymous because it puts you at risk of financial or personal harm (i.e., your boss will fire you if s/he finds out you said it), please feel free to submit such content directly to the Editorial Director via our Letters to the Editor form here. We will respect your desire for privacy and make a considered, journalistic decision whether and under what conditions to publish your content. We will consult with you before do doing. As professional journalists, we will not violate your expressed privacy in these instances.

The revelation of trade secrets will not justify this consideration, so please don’t submit them. We deem them unacceptable violations of our core values.

We will strive to be transparent in all that we do, but we understand that the cause of journalistic expression sometimes requires the use of unnamed sources. When and if we cite unnamed or pseudonymous sources in our reporting, we will clearly state our actions and explain them. We reserve the right to keep our sources private, and will only divulge such information upon order of the court.

Welcome!
We hope that these thoughts shed light on our intentions, processes, and desires. As our thinking and experience evolve, we will amend this statement as needed to more clearly communicate who we are and what we seek to achieve.

We hope that HOW Online makes a positive and significant contribution to the marketplace of ideas, and we will do everything in our power to uphold these values and goals in everything we do.

Dov Seidman
Publisher