Guidelines for posting on bangordailynews.com

The Bangor Daily News encourages comments about stories, but you must follow our terms of service.

In brief:

1. Keep it civil and stay on topic
2. No vulgarity, racial slurs, name-calling or personal attacks.
3. People who harass others or joke about tragedies will be blocked.

The primary rule here is pretty simple: Treat others with the same respect you'd want for yourself. Here are some guidelines (see more):

It should be noted this is not a comprehensive list.

• Don't insult one another or the subjects of BDN stories. You may be ticked off at what someone did or said, but you can explain that without resorting to name-calling or obscenity. Remember that young people are on this site too.
• That nasty line that makes your buddies go "haw, haw"? You're better than that.
• Comments should be your own work, not copied and pasted from elsewhere, though brief quoted passages to make your point are fine. And please don't use all capital letters. There's no need to shout.
• Stay focused on the issue in the article. Off-topic posts will be deleted.
• This isn't a forum to chat about your personal life.
• Some ideas — the fate of the earth, abortion, gun control, the nature of God — aren't going to be resolved in a reader forum, so no need to get frustrated if others don't see your point of view. State your position once and leave it at that.
• If you mouse over each comment you will see a "Flag" button. Please use it if you feel comments on the site are out of line. Quite often, we won't see a comment until it's reported.
• Questions about why a comment was — or wasn't — deleted? E-mail us at web@bangordailynews.com and let us know your username and where you posted or saw the comment.

That's about it: Stick to writing about the stories; be civil; be kind; enlighten your neighbors. And we'll keep moderating posts to try to ensure everyone meets those standards.

• Anonymous

  Why would I bother to post a message about a blown street-lightbulb, when I can just call City hall?

• Anonymous

  Same in Ellsworth. Pretty easy to get in touch with City Hall directly and cut out the middle man.

• Anonymous

  I got a good chuckle out of the Golden Road needing paving.

• http://bangordailynews.com William P. Davis – BDN

  The idea is to gain more public exposure to hold City Hall accountable. We certainly don’t discourage people from contacting City Hall, this is just one way for people to easily report problems.

• Anonymous

  Why would I bother to call city hall, when I know someone else will call?

• waynorth1

  Oh man, this is going to be as good as the daily arrest reports!  Nothing pulls out a complainer more than being anonymous.  Can’t wait…..cool idea. 

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JTLUOVP3KOTAATCD6GC2A5U3TM Joseph

  Is City Hall not accountable now?

• Anonymous

  A nice idea, but this will be interesting since pretty much every road in the state is abysmal (just for starters). And the AM commute time post made me laugh…I have sympathy, I really do, but only in Maine would someone think a few slowpokes constituted an aggravating problem.

• Anonymous

  Apparently that person should go live on the Fort Fairfield road in PI, since they have lots of loud and speeding vehicles during what is obviously commuter “traffic” time.

• Anonymous

  This is rediculous.  Just call city hall.  I have a feeling that BDN is getting $$$ for this arrangement.

• AionNV

  He’s probably in the process of answering you.  He’s typing very slowly, so you’ll get it.

• AionNV

  You just can’t be a top notch paper in Maine, and be appreciated, no matter how innovative and obviously passionate you are about decent journalism.

• Anonymous

  You can report issues to the City of Bangor on their website http://www.egovlink.com/bangor/action.asp

• Anonymous

  This “idea” seems moronic. 

• waynorth1

  Try Cedar Street in PI at 10:50 a.m. on Tuesday mornings, juniors and seniors racing to get to Big Cheese for the daily special, “Hot N Ready.”  Going 50 MPH in a 25 MPH residential area downhill and laughing at the police.  

• http://bangordailynews.com William P. Davis – BDN

  We’re not getting paid anything.

• http://bangordailynews.com William P. Davis – BDN

  Not that City Hall isn’t accountable, but we could all use more accountability. I should have phrased it better.

• waynorth1

  You’re doing all right, Bill…..always gonna be a naysayer in every crowd.  Perfectionism, be it verbally or on a written page, is hard to come by!

• Anonymous

  Mr. Davis – I just submitted an observation about fuel waste in the Greater Bangor area. Could you possibly contact me through the e-mail I provided? I would like to discuss this with someone at BDN. Thanks! – jbig….

• Anonymous

  I thought BDN was cutting positions. Who is going to have time to perform this service as you are now understaffed?

• PaulNotBunyan

  I can see the potential for abuse. Maybe some municipalities will be asking SeeClickFix to never contact them again. “Golden Road needs paving” is a good example. I think it also needs some street lights fixed. Don’t forget to put in similar requests for the Stud Mill Road. The airstrip near Pickerel Pond needs some new park benches and lots of pothole repair.

• Anonymous

  Certain roads in Millinocket have dangerous potholes. One road is Congress Street and the shopping center parking lot on central street that houses IGA and Family dollar is Very Dangerous With deep, wide potholes.

• Anonymous

  I saw my next door neighbor cooking on his grill, meat I think, smoke came my way…  I saw some kids riding bikes in my neighborhood, no helmets on…At least 3 days a week the people down the street leave all their lights on all night….  I think it’s a good Idea for BDN to have this site, it’s another way report or complain to a sometime non listening Town/City  Hall… A+++

• Anonymous

  This whole service is nothing more than a traffic-increasing ploy for the BDN website.  They were offered this service, or else came up with it themselves strictly to increase traffic and get people ingrained into the BDN.  The city already has a ticketting system for complaints that go directly through the city hall and public works.  The city WILL NOT be montioring this at all, and does not have a dialogue with the BDN.  The reason for this, like I said, is because they already have a system for concerns related to public works.  Again – this is a marketting ploy by the BDN with no authorization or coordination from the city – do not buy into this phony service!

• Anonymous

  This is a good service. Very good thinking by someone at the BDN. I am sure the city doesn’t mind anyway. They want to know where the problems are. Good staff over there.

• Anonymous

  “We provide the tools for citizens to go ahead and make connections”
  with the appropriate municipal contacts, said Emma Richards of
  SeeClickFix.”………… What a joke, this whole service exists for nothing more than to give websites like a newspaper website a way to increase web traffic because they know people love to complain.  With more web traffic the website can boast and garner more advertising or higher rates for advertising. 

• Anonymous

  City hall is already accountable as much as they can be (ever hear of going to council meetings or voting?), do you think they have more money or more crews to magically fix things now that this “service” exists?  SeeClickFix is only about increasing web traffic for the BDN.   It is disingenuous as far as the claim of providing cities with relevant concerns from citizenry, and is nothing more than  marketing ploy.

• Anonymous

  That’s true, in fact you paid NetClickFix for the service because you see value in increasing web traffic for the BDN site, which is the whole point.  You knew all along that city halls wont respond to this at all, and they already have schedules maxed out, and formats for lodging complaints. 

• Anonymous

   I left a complaint about a defunct and irrelevant structure in need of demolition at 491 Main st in Bangor. 

• http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000116395974 Kevin Cunning

  Really?
  You guys are going to come in and complain that the paper may or may not be making money?
  I would HOPE they are making some money someplace while you read your FREE online newspaper and complain on your FREE message boards

• Anonymous

  Thanks for helping BDN.
  A small voice in this wilderness.

• Anonymous

  It would be a better service for the BDN to engage in some meaningful investigative journalism than to track the mundane complaints of citizens.  Issues like cronyism, nepotism and poor policy are far more important to me than how long it takes public works to send a guy out to change a blown lightbulb.  The folks from SeeClickFix must have some fancy brochures or something, because they seem to have sold you an unnecessary product.

• Anonymous

  Is your cup always half empty?

• Anonymous

  Can the see-click-fix work for for the tumbling U.S.P.S. ?

  Great  idea!  Great service!

• Anonymous

  Increasing web traffic to the site is the same as getting paid… and that’s sorta what I was getting at.

• Anonymous

  I look at their ads, which is what the whole web business model is about.

• Anonymous

  I did as well, but read the comments on that one-someone took it seriously. 

• http://bangordailynews.com William P. Davis – BDN

  What is the issue with offering an easy way for people to report problems that allows transparency so everyone can see when issues are resolved?

• http://bangordailynews.com William P. Davis – BDN

  Your email address stays anonymous, but you can email me at wdavis@bangordailynews.com and I’ll do my best to help.

• Anonymous

  long over due but thank you BDL…now if you’d publish the proposed laws the government forces upon the citizens that would be a plus..keep up how our US Congress people vote on bills.

• Anonymous

  Spent all the pothole money on fill for the airport truck pulls…lol

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_V73P56RLRRMAKXCP3PBRQ2SMZQ Brianna

  What really needs to be done is the railroad tracks at the beginning of the Greenfield Road, you have to pretty much stop all the way to get across them. They’re so bad! 

• Anonymous

  The town is setting themselves up for a lawsuit by not fixing them. It is not just about damage to cars.