As PolicyMic has grown, we’ve been incredibly impressed at the community’s ability to maintain and increase the quality of discussion. As more users have gotten their friends engaged on the site, we now average almost 5,000 comments a week.

Today, we’re excited to announce a new comment moderation feature that allows users to flag and remove comments that violate the discussion principles. The feature is democratic, like the spirit of PolicyMic, but will only work if our community uses it carefully. Here’s how it works:

1) Any registered user can publicly flag a comment if it violates our comment policies

2) Now, everyone else reading the article will be able to add another flag, or keep the comment by adding a green flag

3) If a comment gets three red flags, the comment is removed and the user will be warned

4) If other users disagree with the flag, they can vote to "keep" the comment by giving it a green flag

5) 3 green flags will prevent anyone else from further flagging the comment

We trust our community and our users to flag and remove comments fairly. This moderation system depends on that trust.

Comments should be removed if they are or include:

1. Disrespectful or aggressive critique of others users

2. Threats, racial/sexual slurs, or excessive vulgarity

3. Fake photos, names, or accounts

4. Promoting organizations unrelated to the discussion