MinnPost welcomes user comments on our stories and posts. MinnPost’s mission is to engage the public in news analysis of issues in their community and to encourage interaction with our editors, writers and other posters. We intend for this area to be used by our readers as a place for civil, thought-provoking and high-quality public discussion.

In order to achieve this, MinnPost requires that all commenters register and post comments with their actual names and place of residence.

MinnPost does not permit the use of foul language, personal attacks, snideness, gratuitous insult of the intelligence or character of fellow commenters and others, or nicknames or invented names meant to denigrate or taunt others. We also don’t allow the use of language that may be libelous or interpreted as inciting hate or sexual harassment.

We will reject inflammatory and highly provocative comments that seem likely to hijack the comment thread — by making the discussion more about the commenter’s inflammatory view than about the story. We also will reject comments that are clearly off-topic.

MinnPost reserves the right to remove postings that violate these guidelines; however we are under no obligation to do so. User comments are reviewed by moderators and may be included or excluded at our discretion. User comments are reviewed to ensure that comments meet these standards and adhere to MinnPost’s terms of use and privacy policy.

MinnPost reserves the right to ban any commenter who repeatedly or maliciously violates our terms of use or commenting policy.