Submitting Articles

1. What type of articles can I submit?
   You can submit any recent article which is a news story, an opinion letter, a blog post or a video link (YouTube or Google Video). Articles play a crucial role because they bring in new content to stimulate discussions.
2. What do I put in the Article's URL?
   If it is an original article which you authored, please leave it blank. For externally sourced articles, enter the permanent link of the article source. For YouTube or Google Video, enter the direct URL of the video, as shown in the picture on the right.
3. What do I enter in the Article's title?
   The actual title of the article.
4. What do I put in the Article's content/description?
   For externally sourced articles, please place the entire content only if it is freely available to public. For example, do not put the whole content of a Malaysiakini news article which requires subscription, the article teaser is sufficient. You can then add in your own words the main points of the article. You are also encouraged to manually hyperlink relevant personalities, objects or issues found in the article content to existing wikiops. Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd>. Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
5. What category should I select?
   Choose a category from the drop-down list which most closely describes the article.
6. What is a 'Source author'?
   Source author is the original author of the article. It can be a real name or a pseudonym. If there are more than a single author, enter their names in a comma separated list. Leave the field blank if you are the author or if it is unknown. Please check for typos and enter the full name of the author or the pseudonym without the titles (Dr, Datuk, Tun, etc.).
7. What are tags?
   
   Tags are a comma-separated list of personalities, objects and issues described in the article. Tags are important terms because they will become potential wikiops. Both tags and wikiops will be located at the header section of the article once posted. Please include the term 'video' if it is a video article. Use singular instead of plural forms. It is a good idea to include the full names of the people mentioned in the article without their titles (Dr, Datuk, Tun, etc.). Please also avoid typos.
8. Can I submit an article in another language?
   Yes, any language is fine, but you must provide at least a simple translation of the article's main points if the language is not in English or Malay.

Rating Articles

1. What do "published" and "upcoming" mean?
   
   When you select the published navigation bar, you will be able to access all articles that have received a critical number of positive votes, and as a result, published on the front page. The purpose of the published section is to filter spam and uninteresting articles. The upcoming section on the other hand, contains the latest submitted articles. You are invited to rate the articles in this section.
2. How do I rate an article?
   
   

   You can rate an article by clicking on the + or - button attached to the title of the article. In the published section, articles with higher scores will appear at the top when you sort them.

Posting Comments

1. Please try to keep posts on topic.
2. Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads.
3. Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said.
4. Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about.
5. Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated.
   You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold.
6. Avoid being redundant and just repeating what has already been said.
   Yes, being moderated as "redundant" is worth "-1" to your post and your karma. Especially to be avoided are the "what he said" and "me too" posts.
7. Although not recommended, you can post comments anonymously.
   We allow this because sometimes people have important information they want to post, but are afraid to do it if they can be linked to it. It will also make it unnecessary for them to create a duplicate account for such purposes.
8. Can you please delete my comment?
   Unfortunately, no. We want the discussions in OpenPolity.Org to be like the discussions in real life, you can't go back in time and change what you say, you only can attempt to clarify by saying more. In other words, you can't delete a comment that you've posted, you only can post a reply to yourself and attempt to clarify what you've said. In short, you should think twice and check the preview before you click the 'Post comment' button because once you click it, we are not going to Undo it.

Viewing Comments

1. In the comment viewing options, what does "Score:X threshold" mean?
   
   The "threshold" you set is the minimum score that a comment needs to have if it's content is to be visible to you. Comments are scored from -1 to 5, and you can set your threshold at any score within that range. For example, if you set your threshold at 3, only comments with scores of 3 or above would be displayed. Setting your threshold at -1 will display all comments. Higher threshold settings reduce the number of comments you see, but (in theory, anyway) the quality of the posts you do see increases.
2. What do "Display: flat" and "Display: threaded" mean?
   
   These are different ways to display a list of comments:

   • Flat mode displays all the comments in one list chronologically, without showing any relationships between comments.
     
   • Threaded mode shows a hierarchy of responses.
     

Moderating Comments

1. What are the properties of a good comment and a bad comment?
   A good comment says something interesting, thought provoking or insightful. It has a link to a relevant piece of information that will add something to the discussion. It's not off topic or flamey. It doesn't call someone names. It doesn't personally attack someone because of a disagreement of opinion. The best ones contribute great ideas to solve or to improve an issue being discussed. These are the comments that should be wikiopped.
2. What do the choices in the moderation drop-down boxes mean?
   
   • Normal -- This is the default setting attached to every comment when you have moderation privileges. Normally, you should not need to actually select this option, but if you move your mouse over some descriptor you didn't mean to, you can undo that mistake by choosing Normal before you release the mouse button.
   • Offtopic -- A comment which has nothing to do with the story it's linked to (song lyrics, obscene ascii art, comments about another topic entirely) is Offtopic. An offtopic descriptor can also be used for trolling comments. This could be a prank comment intended to provoke confused responses. It could also mix up vital facts or otherwise distort reality, to make other readers react with helpful "corrections." It is the online equivalent of intentionally dialing wrong numbers just to waste other people's time.
   • Flamebait -- Flamebait refers to comments whose sole purpose is to insult and enrage. If someone is not-so-subtly picking a fight (racial insults are a dead giveaway), it's Flamebait.
   • Unsubstantiated -- Making statements without adequate evidence.
   • Redundant -- Redundant posts are ones which add no new information, but instead take up space with repeating information either in the OpenPolity.Org article, wikiops, the attached links, or previous comments.
   • Insightful -- An Insightful statement makes you think, puts a new spin on a given story (or aspect of a story). An analogy you hadn't thought of, or a telling counterexample, are examples of Insightful comments.
   • Interesting -- If you believe a comment to be Interesting (and it's not mostly Redundant, Offtopic, or otherwise lame), it is.
   • Informative -- Often comments add new information to explain the circumstances hinted at by a particular story, fill in "The Other Side" of an argument, provide background information about a person described too vaguely elsewhere, etc. Such comments are Informative.
   • Funny -- Think of Funny as being a good moderation choice if you actually think the comment is funny, not just because it seems intended to be.
   • Overrated -- Sometimes you'll run into a comment which for whatever reason has been moderated out of proportion -- this probably means several moderators saw it at nearly the same time, thought it was Funny, Insightful etc, and their scores added together exaggerate its relative merit. Such a comment is Overrated.
   • Underrated -- Likewise, some comments get smashed lower than they perhaps deserve by overzealous moderators. If you moderate a comment as Underrated, you're saying that it deserves to be read by more people than will see it at its current score. As with Overrated, if you can think of a more specific moderation reason, do so -- if a comment has already been moderated with an appropriate label though, and you just want to indicate that it deserves greater visibility, that's what Underrated is for.
   • Wikiop this! -- Some comments have very good points to solve or to improve an issue being discussed. These comments deserve the "Wikiop this!" moderation. If a comment gets the maximum score, "Score:5 Wikiop this!", the points raised in the comment should be wikiopped and a reference link to the comment should given in the wikiop to credit the author.
     
     When you wikiop the arguments in a comment, if possible, please follow the Wikireason logic tree format for arguments.

General Questions about OpenPolity.Org

1. What's up with the logo?
   It is an astrocyte, a type of glial cell that anchors neurons in place. It also propagates inter-neuron signalling. Analogously, we hope OpenPolity.Org will be the medium to store ideas and to facilitate discussion among everyday Malaysians.

If your question has not been answered, please post it in your comment and we will add them here.
*Some of the above have been adapted from the Slashdot's FAQ.