It is regaining its ability to comment on Tampa Bay Times subscribers later this week.
The Times welcomes and supports constructive dialogue and discourse from subscribers regarding stories posted on Tampabay.com. The Comment Forum is intended to be a civic space where people can have meaningful, informed conversations about facts.
Times staff retain the privilege to determine what is published on Tampabay.com. To that end, we hold comments published on Hiber along with our work, as we hold journalism to high ethical standards.
I wanted to share some tips on how to return to comments and how to become an effective and productive commenter.
Tips for good comments
You can help promote an inclusive and respectful commenting environment for everyone visiting or participating. Here’s how:
Treat others the way you want to be treated. Think about the impact your words have on other commenters, the people featured in the article and on loved ones. Please read the entire article before you comment.Provides information that enhances or adds context, or that could lead to further reporting on topics.Stay at the point. If you ask a question, make sure it is related to the article you are commenting on.It responds to the content of the comment, not the person making it.Be careful when adopting irony. Tones are not always encountered in writing.Comments with flags that violate community guidelines. This is the quickest way to focus your attention on a problem.If possible, backup comments with reliable sources and proven data. Any comments that blatantly spread false information or prove to be fake will be deleted.
Unacceptable behavior
Comments that reflect one of the following may be deleted and the author may be suspended or prohibited:
It lightens your identity, ideology, or other actions that embody or blow away prejudice. This includes, but is not limited to, racism, misogyny, competentism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia, homophobia, and transphobia.Harassment, bullying, insulting, name calls, or other attacks on personal or advertising. If you think there is a stronger point, write it briefly in your own comments and proceed.Trolling – involves actively inciting unproductive interactions. Use all capital letters or excessive symbols to deliberately confuse or distort the argument.Violates someone’s privacy, including posting personal information.to incite, incite, intimidate, or defend violence or harm.Indecency, profanity, slut, slurred, containing symbols instead of letters and acronyms commonly known to represent profanity.Submission of copyrighted material.Comments or solicitations for money that promote a product or service. Campaign ads or other such promotional material.Any kind of spam, including posting the same comment multiple times, or posting single terminology repeatedly using small variations to test the rules.Promote, encourage or reveal illegal activities.I’m confused about the topic.Present falsehoods as facts, including the promotion or perpetuation of conspiracy theory.I’ll pretend to be someone else.Abuse the flag system – for example, report comments that don’t break the rules simply because you don’t agree with it or hate the person who wrote it.History of comments showing you visit Tampabay.com only in comments without contributing anything to the community discussion. (Respectful, constructive criticism is encouraged.)Comments that exceed 1,800 characters. Don’t split long comments into multiple short posts. They will be removed.
The staff retains the discretion to mitigate, suspend or prohibit anyone we believe will undermine the atmosphere of the site. When making these decisions, we consider both individual comments and past actions of commenters.
More information on how comments work
Comments containing links to sites that do not comply with these guidelines will also be removed. In some cases, we may consider comments that contain links in advance.
The final decision to delete a comment or pause the user is.
Times staff may use our discretion to close comments on the article at any time for a variety of ethical and/or practical reasons.
Comment Forum FAQ
Why are there comments on Tampabay.com?
We consider our stories, columns and editorials to be the starting point for conversations at Tampabay.com. We welcome and encourage Tampa Bay Times subscribers and encourage them to contribute to informative and meaningful discussions about the facts presented in our article.
How do I set up an account to comment on?
As long as you are a subscriber and are logged in to your Times account, you will be able to post comments immediately. You can update the display name when prompted before commenting or updating your Times profile.
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How can I report a comment that breaks the rules?
Readers can warn us of comments that violate community guidelines by flagging it and submitting a brief report. Once the report is submitted, the moderator reviews the comments and decides whether action is required.
How are comments monitored?
We will pre-screen all comments on any language or tone that violates community guidelines. Run your first screening in addition to a team of moderators working 24/7 at the Times using highly advanced technology filters.
What happens if you violate community guidelines?
Comments that violate our community guidelines can lead to times of action, such as a loss of ability to comment on our site. Subscriptions are not affected. However, your ability to comment may be limited based on the severity and frequency of comments that violate the guidelines.
Who will review reported comments?
Our team of moderators, open 24/7, reviews flagged comments or reports submitted by readers. Time journalists may also help ease commenting activities.
As a subscriber of the era, can I still suspend or ban comments?
Yes, Community Guidelines apply to all users regardless of their subscription status. If you violate the guidelines, your comment privilege could be suspended or revoked, but you can still read the article.
Please let me know when I’m suspended or banned. Can you tell me why? And can I revive?
If comments are suspended or prohibited, we will notify you via the email address associated with your comment account.
In most cases, the initial violation of the guidelines will result in an hour outage. It’s essentially a warning. A second violation leads to a 24-hour suspension. If you break the rules again then you will be banned. A terrible violation of the guidelines, such as race, gender or gender, threats of violence, personal attacks based on commercial spam posts, can lead to immediate bans. The prohibition is permanent.
Why are you censoring people’s opinions?
The Times reserves the right to allow or prohibit content that does not meet our standards. There is no obligation to publish all comments. In general, comments are subject to deletion because they violate basic guidelines, not because of the opinions they express.
Why do I need a subscription to comment?
Commenting on a Times article is an advantage for subscribers. We believe it encourages a more civic environment and discourages trolling behavior from flyby commenters.
Why are the old stories not commented on threads?
Comments were reintroduced in June 2025. There are no stories with built-in commenting features. No comments regarding stories prior to 2019 were archived.
