Before You Comment: WFNY commenting policy: When WFNY began, we editors agreed to maintain a family-friendly atmosphere on the site. We would be careful with our language and encourage our commenters to do the same. In addition, we wouldn’t post pictures of half-naked women, nor would we publish links to articles and websites that feature them.

Any attempt by site visitors to circumvent WFNY’s language filters by creatively misspelling foul language will result in an automatic IP ban. Furthermore, personal attacks and insults will not be tolerated. It’s possible to argue about sports without belittling those with whom we disagree. Debating the facts and the merits of opinions is not only accepted, but encouraged at WFNY; however, visitors who resort to attacking others risk an IP ban. Commenting at WFNY is not a right; it is a privilege.

There are thousands of sports sites — including hundreds of Cleveland sites — that don’t care to maintain this type of environment. We feel there should be a place where Cleveland fans should be able to read and comment about their favorite teams without being subjected to foul language and pornography. We feel the fans that read and comment here are some of the most knowledgeable and articulate around the Cleveland sports scene. We appreciate the atmosphere that they have helped us create.

If you have any questions regarding this or anything else on the site, shoot an email to rick@waitingfornextyear.com. Thanks again!

Policy on links and “hijacking”: WFNY encourages discussion about all published material. We as editors believe comments should be constructive as well as relevant to topics therein, and we allow third-party content to be linked within a post given that it adds to said discussion. WFNY, however, is not a message board. Comments that reference or link to outside material must pertain to the original post and conversation thereafter; references and links to unrelated outside material will be deleted without notification. Readers with ideas about topics and links WFNY should see can email those to tips@waitingfornextyear.com.

Technical stuff: Readers who want an avatar associated with their comments at WFNY should understand our comments system. When visitors comment using an email address (which remains totally private to everyone except the WFNY staff, by the way) our system runs their filters comments to make sure that they aren’t potty mouths or evil spammers trying to sell us something that we definitely do not want to buy. The filters also look for an avatar associated with that email address at either WordPress.com or Gravatar.com.

The easiest way is to create an avatar is through Gravatar. Readers can go there and enter the email address they wish to use when commenting on WFNY. Gravatar then sends a confirmation email to activate the account and will allow the user to upload a profile image.

Visitors with existing WordPress accounts established for email addresses different from the email address they wish to use for WFNY should visit Gravatar, log in with their WordPress account info, add the intended email address and upload a picture.