Principles and rules for participants

EL PAÍS wishes to encourage reader participation via comments on the content it publishes on its website, always subject to criteria of quality and excluding insults, disqualifications and considerations unrelated to the topic at hand. The goal is to provide readers with a platform for debate and discussion under the following principles

1. To comment in EL PAÍS, readers must identify themselves by their name and surname.
2. All reader comments that contribute to enhance the content and quality of the EL PAÍS website are welcome.
3. Contrasting views and disagreements are basic elements of a debate. There is no room in EL PAÍS for insults, personal attacks, disqualifications or any expressions or content removed from appropriate channels of discussion.
4. Our moderator policy guarantees the quality of discussion, which must abide by the principles of plurality and respect of EL PAÍS as set down in its Style Guide. The newspaper will be very strict in terms of rejecting opinions involving insults, xenophobia, racism, homophobia, slander or any other unacceptable content.
5. The editorial management team decides on a daily basis which content will be open to comments. This selection is made according to information value criteria and provided it is possible to manage quality moderation. The list of content open to comments purports to be as extensive as possible and is constantly being updated.
6. Advertising messages or off-topic comments will be rejected.
7. Messages 'shouted out' in upper case will be turned down.
8. EL PAÍS reserves the right to eliminate comments it considers inappropriate and to ban users who violate these rules.
9. Users with a history of comments based on respect and the absence of disqualifications will be graphically highlighted and will have publishing priority. Whenever prominent users change their profile picture or personal data, the distinction will be suspended until the completion of a validation process.