opinion

Our View: Personal attacks have no place here

Colorado State University's on-campus football stadium has borne out a great variety of opinion and comments on the Coloradoan's website, on Facebook and in its Opinion pages.

We've seen similar discussion on the financing package for the Foothills Mall, on the topic of growth, the city's proposed Building on Basics 2.0 tax and countless other issues.

Disagreement and the healthy dialogue that comes with it is right for this community, and for any community. But there's a point at which it moves from disagreement to something darker — an impediment to forward momentum. In whatever direction that momentum takes us.

Over the past month, Coloradoan staff has received significant feedback from you, upset about comments on the Coloradoan website. We've received more than a dozen emails and phone calls, in the last two weeks alone. You have weighed in on the less-than-constructive tone at Super Bowl parties and in regular meetings with reporters.

This deeply antagonistic and unproductive tone that has surfaced in our comments sections recently has the potential to hurt us all.

It's a time-suck for our staff, which would rather be working to deliver you more meaningful stories than spend its time looking four four-letter words.

More important, it's disappointing because the behavior in no way reflects the larger Fort Collins community. One of the reasons we love living here is that we all care so much about our neighbors. About our schools. About the community we will become.

But specific issues have brought out some of the worst in us online. It's painful, because others begin to question what's important to us here in Fort Collins.

It's also painful because it's hurtful. We're confident few people would have the courage, never mind the poor judgment, to verbally abuse as they have online.

It's not just at the Coloradoan. The Larimer County Board of Commissioners last month put in place a new code of civility for public comments at its meetings, "not to restrict citizen input, but to encourage it," Commissioner Steve Johnson wrote to us recently.

Be sure of this — we are not making a mountain out of a metaphorical molehill. And so, here's our ask: think before you go after your neighbor online.

We have a single set of standards that apply to all of our digital spaces, including comments on stories, on Facebook and on Twitter. It can be found at the top of every story, in the comments box.

It is this:

•No personal attacks, abuse or harassment of other community members, subjects of our coverage or staff.

•No hate speech or stereotypes that attack or disparage an ethnic, sexual or religious group or a member of any such group.

•No obscenities, vulgarities or any variation of such that suggests, connotes or contains indecent, offensive or lewd speech.

We've encountered comments that have violated all three tenets in recent weeks.

Here's what we can do, which is also spelled out in our policy:

•Suspend users and/or remove comments that, in our judgment, infringe on other users' ability to enjoy our website.

If you're frustrated like we are, help us and report comments that are in violation of policy. Remind your colleagues online that criticism is perfectly acceptable and that as the only local news organization in Fort Collins it's our responsibility to question city government, the local university and other key decision makers in our community.

Extend this beyond the virtual community and spread the word at public meetings, in your neighborhoods and more.

Don't misinterpret the spirit of this editorial. We strongly encourage healthy dialogue. But let's channel our energy on how we solve real issues: from homelessness to housing, and so many more.

If you're reading and you've made personal attacks, please stop. There are so many better opportunities to effect meaningful change.

The Issue

As the community has divided over significant issues, personal attacks — online and in-person — have become more prominent.