What are your commenting guidelines?

Readers’ comments are an integral part of FT.com. They help to put our coverage in context and provide different perspectives on our journalism. Sometimes we get story ideas from these discussions, comments proving to be a starting point for another FT piece.

We are proud that the FT comments are, at their best, insightful, humorous, intellectually challenging and inclusive of diverse perspectives. In order for the comment space to function most effectively, we ask our readers to adhere to the set of guidelines below.

We are grateful to those who take the time to contribute to the FT and look forward to reading your comments.

Basics

Keep it relevant: Off-topic comments may be removed.

Keep it respectful: Criticise ideas, not people. Avoid offensive language (this includes profanity).

Keep it neat: Avoid excessive use of bold type and capital letters.

Civility

Please do not insult others. Disagreements and criticism are fine, but making your comments personal is not.

Please be polite. We do not allow comments that are needlessly aggressive or rude.
We are open to strong opinions, but may remove comments deemed to be offensive or threatening in nature. Please respect other people’s views and beliefs when contributing.

Don’t write comments that are abusive, or incite hatred. Comments that are discriminatory in nature or make sweeping generalisations about people on the grounds of race, gender, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, disability or age are harmful to our community and not permitted.

It is not permitted to call other commenters names. This includes accusing someone of being a troll. If you are genuinely concerned that someone is a troll, please contact our Customer Care team and ask for your query to be directed to the comment moderation team.

Sharing the space

Be concise. Comments posted in two or more parts will be removed.

Don’t hog the comments space. Those who we deem to be commenting excessively may be warned or banned.

Criticism of the FT and our journalists

Making personal or uncivil attacks on our writers will lead to your comment being removed and may result in a ban from commenting. Criticism should be made in a constructive manner: play the ball, not the person.

We welcome criticism of our coverage but will not allow comments that are plainly unfounded or misrepresent the FT or our journalists.

Trolling and misleading

Do not troll. Commenters we deem to be deliberately provocative may be banned. This includes inciting conflict and unproductive disputes in our threads, as well as picking fights with others who disagree with you.
Commenters who spread misinformation, or we consider to be writing comments with the intent to mislead, will be banned.
Please do not cut and paste your comment into multiple threads. Comments may be removed if they repeat points already made by the same commenter, or if they appear to be part of an organised campaign.

Promoting and impersonating

We will remove comments that are clearly commercial or otherwise resemble spam. Comments advertising or linking to businesses or products, or aimed primarily at promoting other websites, may be removed in their entirety. This includes linking repeatedly to your own blog posts.

You must not pretend to be another known FT.com user. You must not impersonate any person or entity or misrepresent any connection with any person or entity.
Please also see section 7 ‘User Generated Content’ of our terms and conditions.