Comments Policy

We welcome comments from readers and debate on local issues, but to maintain this website as a forum for civil discourse, we have established the following comments policy:

Commenters will be required to use their real, full names and real, verifiable email addresses.

RiverheadLOCAL will verify your identity before posting your first comment here, effective immediately. Once verified, your user name will be whitelisted and you will be able to post comments without pre-moderation, as long as you abide by the terms of this comments policy.

Anonymous comments and comments posted under fictitious names will be rejected. No new anonymous comments will be posted on this website, effective January 28, 2013.

Here are RiverheadLOCAL’s rules for comments:

• Commenters must use their real names and provide a verifiable email address.
• All viewpoints are welcome — left to right, and all points in between.
• Comments must be factually accurate.
• All comments must comply with this policy. The following are prohibited and comments containing the following will be removed:

• False or potentially libelous statements.
• Obscene, explicit, or racist language including hate speech.
• Personal attacks, insults or threats.
• Allegations of criminal behavior or other extreme personal wrongdoing based on facts that haven’t been published in articles.
• Commercial product promotions.
• Content taken from another source without permission.
• Private personal information published without consent.
• Comments unrelated to the topic of the forum.
• Hyperlinks to material that is not directly related to the discussion.

Persistent violators of this comments policy will be blacklisted — i.e. banned from commenting here.

If you want to provide a news tip or have information you are not comfortable posting publicly using your real name, please share it with us privately. Click here to send us an email.

We rely in part on contributors to let us know when comments violate these guidelines. If you wish to report activity that you believe violates our guidelines, click here.

By submitting a comment, you are agreeing to abide by these guidelines. People who violate these guidelines may lose the privilege of posting on RiverheadLOCAL.com.

We reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to edit or remove any comment posted on this website.

For more information, see our terms of use.

Thank you for your cooperation and support.