How we moderate comments on Star Tribune articles

Hello, readers! We love hearing from you. One of the best places to share your views on Star Tribune coverage — and with fellow readers — is our comment section.

The Star Tribune welcomes readers to engage in substantive, respectful conversations about its stories. Many of our articles offer commenting for readers to share their thoughts, read others’ perspectives or provide feedback on our work. You do not need to be a subscriber to comment, but you must have an active login and username. To learn more, read these instructions in our help center.

All comments are reviewed by a team of moderators before they are published. These moderators are contracted to do moderation. They are not employees of the newsroom or the Opinion department.

To keep our comment sections welcoming, inclusive and useful, we ask that readers post in accordance with our commenting guidelines:

• Keep it civil — strive to create a productive dialogue.

• Comments must stay on topic and be relevant to the article.

• No name-calling, profanity, vulgarity or personal attacks. We will not tolerate hate speech or derogatory comments based on race, color, religion, gender, sexuality, national origin, age, disability, etc.

• Misinformation will not be accepted.

• Post original thoughts rather than copying and pasting material from other sources.

• Usernames must be appropriate. Impersonating other commenters or mocking real people in your username isn’t allowed.

• Do not spam the comment section by posting the same comment or similar comments or replies multiple times.

• Comments with web links are not allowed.

• Commercial promotion is not allowed.

• Campaign statements and literature are not allowed.

• No personal attacks against Star Tribune employees.

• Criticism of our moderators, their decisions and moderation policies will not be tolerated.

Comments that violate the above guidelines will not be posted. Repeat violators may lose their commenting privileges.

Comments are often closed on particularly sensitive stories where a high volume of misinformation and bias often derails the conversation. Some topics for which we close comments:

• Public safety

• Fatalities

• Most legal/court proceedings

• Homelessness

• Coronavirus and other widespread public health issues

• Some stories on race, religion, gender and sexuality

The Star Tribune also reserves the right to close existing comments on any particular article if the dialogue veers off topic. When that happens, the comments module is removed from the article.

If you would like to share your feedback on a story that does not allow commenting, you are welcome to email feedback@startribune.com or submit a commentary or letter to the editor at opinion@startribune.com.

The Star Tribune’s moderation team carefully screens every comment entered into our system. The team endeavors to provide a forum where thoughtful, coherent dialogue can be shared and read.

Moderators strictly adhere to the above guidelines when approving and rejecting comments. While this moderation work is subjective, the team aims for consistency.

We do not reject comments solely based on the opinions or criticism expressed. But comments that violate our guidelines will be rejected, and repeat violators may be suspended or banned from future posting. If you think your comment was removed mistakenly or that your account was suspended or banned in error or unfairly, please reach out by using this form.

The moderation team attempts to approve and post comments in a timely manner, but the processing speed can depend on the volume of comments and the time of day. (Readers may experience some lag times during early mornings and overnight hours.)

While screenings are conducted by real, working humans, our moderation system will automatically remove some comments that contain certain derogatory words.