Commenting and Submission Guidelines

1. Commenting

How can I post a comment?

Once you’re logged in, navigate to an article and click/tap on the comment icon to open the commenting layer and post your comment in that tab. 

Our commenting platform is a place for vibrant debate on the subject of our articles. We value this space as a community where different opinions can be respectfully stated and criticised. In order to maintain this community, we uphold high standards for all comments posted on SCMP.com.

For your comment to pass moderation and be published, it should reflect the South China Morning Post’s standards for civility. Types of comments that will not be allowed include (but not limited to):

  • All comments that are illegal under relevant applicable laws
  • All defamatory, racist, sexist, or homophobic comments
  • Personal attacks on other forum participants or SCMP reporters
  • Comments which appear to be inciting hatred or discrimination
  • Impersonations
  • Profane or violent language

 

Furthermore, we ask that you refrain from posting comments that contain commercial promotion or sponsorship.

You are welcome to post comments that contain civil criticism of our reporting. However, we ask that the criticism is relevant to the specific article you comment on. 

For a complete list of our guidelines on comments, see Clause 4.2 of our Terms and Conditions.

What if a comment doesn’t meet SCMP’s guidelines?

If you notice a comment that seems to violate our guidelines for civility, click "Report" on the bottom right side of the comment to alert our editorial team.

Once a comment has been reported, a member of our team will review the comment before deciding whether to remove it. The comment will remain visible while it is undergoing review. See Clause 4.4.4 of our Terms and Conditions for details.

To promote transparency and accountability, we remove the entire comment for comments that fail to meet our guidelines for civility. If your comment was removed, feel free to post a new version that follows our guidelines. See Clause 4.4.3 of our Terms and Conditions.

If I don’t want to connect my SCMP account with a Facebook or Google authenticated account, or I don’t have a Facebook or Google account am I still able to comment on SCMP articles?

Yes. Your comment will be submitted to a moderator who will review each comment. Once each comment has been read to ensure it meets our Terms and Conditions, we will publish your comment online. This process may take up to 24 hours or longer.

What should I do if I can’t see my comment on SCMP.com?

To ensure an open and healthy platform for discussion and debate, we strongly encourage you to connect your SCMP account to a Facebook or Google or Apple authenticated account. Your comment will be submitted to a moderator who will review each comment. Once each comment has been read to ensure it meets our Terms and Conditions, we will publish your comment online. This process can take up to 24 hours. If your comment was deemed inappropriate (as outlined in our Terms and Conditions) it will be removed.

What is SCMP Expert?

This invite-only community congregates the most prolific and respected China experts from across the world with the aim of creating meaningful discourse around China matters. On scmp.com members of this community are identifiable by the 'SCMP Expert' badge assigned to their profile.

Why do we have upvotes but no downvotes as before?

We no longer support downvotes. This decision was taken in order to help foster a positive culture among the community and other media companies have also adopted this approach.

Why does a URL I posted in a comment appear as plain text (i.e. is not a clickable link)?

URLs submitted from websites deemed as being safe will be displayed as clickable links. If you feel a URL submitted should be marked as safe you can contact our moderation team to request a URL is reviewed for suitability. 

Why are some of the commenters’ images clickable?

When a user profile has been linked up with an ‘Author’ term in our system (i.e. that user has an author profile in SCMP.com), his/her profile image will be clickable and will point to his/her respective author index page.

2. Account, Moderation and Privacy

Why am I required to register for an account?

To ensure that you are a real person and that you follow our terms and conditions, all users must register for a free account with SCMP.com before posting comments.

While we require a valid email address for all comments, we value your privacy and will not display your contact information in the comment section. You are also welcome to create a display name to comment, though please do not use a display name that impersonates another person. 

Why do you require me to connect my SCMP account to a Facebook or Google authenticated account?

We want to create an open and healthy platform for discussion and debate. To help us create this, we would like to provide some basic information about each reader including the first name, first initial of their surname and their Facebook or Google avatar. We are doing this in order to improve the experience and transparency for all readers. 

Does SCMP moderate the discussion boards?

We provide comment boards to further reader engagement and insight into our stories. To provide an informative space for discussion, we moderate all comments for their adherence to our guidelines. 

By moderating comments, we create a space where different perspectives and well-informed opinions can be exchanged in a respectful and civilised manner. See Clause 4.4.2 of our Terms and Conditions.

We automatically close all comment threads 14 days after an article is first published so we can focus our efforts on most recent content and discussions.

Have there been any changes made to the moderation policy?

We continuously review our moderation policy in order to ensure it helps facilitate a healthy and positive level of discourse on our platform. 

Will my contact information be made public when readers click on my profile?

No, where available we will display profile image, first name and surname initial from your connected social account and the date you joined SCMP. If a name is not provided through social login, we will display your partial email address. Only our authors with existing author profiles will continue to display associated author information on their author index pages.

3. Technical Support

How do I register for an account?

You can register for an account by visiting https://account.scmp.com/login and clicking "Create an account" at the bottom of the page. This process will take just a couple of minutes and requires a valid email address.

How can I connect my SCMP account to a Facebook or Google authenticated account?

Desktop

If you have an existing SCMP account, please follow the steps below: 

  1. 1. Go to scmp.com 
  2. 2. Click the login button in the top right corner of your screen
  3. 3. Login with your SCMP account
  4. 4. After logging in, click your profile image in the top right corner of your screen 
  5. 5. Click the “GET CONNECTED” button and connect your account using a Facebook or Google Account

 

If you do not have a SCMP account, please follow the steps below: 

  1. 1. Go to scmp.com
  2. 2. Click the login button in the top right corner of your screen
  3. 3. Login/ Sign up with your Facebook or Google Account

 

Mobile

If you have an existing SCMP account, please follow the steps below: 

  1. 1. Go to scmp.com 
  2. 2. Tap the menu icon and click “SIGN IN/ UP” button
  3. 3. Login with your SCMP account
  4. 4. Tap the menu icon and tap your profile image 
  5. 5. Tap “GET CONNECTED” button and connect your account using a Facebook or Google Account

 

If you do not have a SCMP account, please follow the steps below:

  1. 1. Go to scmp.com
  2. 2. Tap the menu icon and click the “SIGN IN/ UP” button. 
  3. 3. Login/ Sign up with your Facebook or Google Account

 

When will I receive email notifications?

We have launched a new commenting platform including new moderation tools and workflows. Commenters will receive an email notification when their comments are approved/published. In addition, users will receive an email notification when a fellow user has replied to one of their comments.

How can I unsubscribe the email notifications? 

There is an ‘Unsubscribe’ link at the footer of each notification email. Users can unsubscribe in order to disable these emails via this link. Alternatively they can log in to the user profile on SCMP.com and update the notification settings to disable email notifications.

4.Others

Reporting errors to SCMP

We hold our reporting to the highest standards of accuracy and excellence, and we appreciate reader input on potential errors in fact. If you notice an error, please contact us via email. Instead of posting corrections in the comment section, we display all corrections in the body of the article. 

To suggest a correction, please contact the South China Morning Post at [email protected].

What if I have additional questions?

Please refer to our Terms and Conditions for complete information regarding our conversations platform. For any additional questions about comments on SCMP.com, please feel free to contact us.