Community standards

When commenting on The Conversation, you are like our guest at our dinner party. You've been invited into our space and we ask that you behave with respect and courtesy to help us create a positive, fact-based discussion. These are the ground rules:

• We treat our comments streams as a curated editorial product. We reserve the right to publish or remove comments to make the conversation better
• Comments are only open on selected articles and are typically open for 72 hours.
• We require your real name and we reserve the right to delete comments made under aliases. If you've signed in via Twitter or Google, please change your handle to your real name using your Conversation profile page.
• Stay on-topic. Comments should be relevant to the article and replies relevant to the initiating post. We reserve the right to delete off-topic comments
• We reserve the right to delete any comments including: personal attacks, all forms of discrimination, posts identifying or sharing the personal information of another person (including children), comments that are commercial or repeatedly-shared external links, comments that are defamatory, breach copyright or put us in legal jeopardy, deliberate attempts to misinform, distort facts, provoke or misrepresent the opinions of others, the thread of replies if the original comment is deleted; and other comments at editorial discretion
• We reserve the right to lock accounts, in particular where commenters repeatedly breach standards

Who is allowed to comment?

All readers of The Conversation can log in and comment. Commenters must use real names.

Can commenters remain anonymous?

No, we have a strict real names policy. Anonymity will only be allowed in exceptional circumstances.

How do commenters log in?

By clicking on Sign in at the top right of any page. You can create a reader account in the same place.

How does The Conversation verify commenters?

We ask that commenters to be honest and use a real name. If you log on via an account like Twitter or Google, please enter your real name on your profile page and use a real name, not a pseudonym or social media handle. From time to time, we may ask users to verify their identity using a trusted, third party site.

Who reviews comments?

The Conversation's editors moderate comments. Readers and other commenters can report comments for our editors to review.