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Our Guidelines

NABUR (Neighborhood Alliance for Better Understanding and Respect) is a place for thoughtful discussion, driven by facts and by you. 

It’s a place to share the news with your community, to connect with your neighbors and to keep in the know about what’s happening in your backyard.

We want everyone to feel free to share their perspective and to feel safe, welcome and respected when using NABUR. Because of this, we made a set of guidelines describing what behaviors are allowed and not allowed on NABUR.

In summary, these guidelines work to uphold one main idea:

These are the people in your NABURhood. Treat everyone here with respect.


1. Be civil and open to new ideas

The main point of NABUR is to connect you to the people who live around you, and NABUR is full of people who might not share your opinions. When conversations turn to attacks, everyone on NABUR suffers. Therefore, comments, posts and replies that discriminate against, attack, insult, shame, bully, namecall, or belittle others are prohibited. Discrimination includes but is not limited to racism, sexism, anti-Semitism, Islamophobia and xenophobia. Offensive language that is targeted toward a specific group of people or individuals are not allowed on NABUR. Also, comments that could cause physical and emotional harm to any person are not allowed. Obscenity, vulgarity, profanity (including expletives and letters followed by dashes or random characters such as $@%*), and words in capital letters to signify shouting are also prohibited. As a general rule before posting, ask yourself: “Would I say this to the person if we were face-to-face?”

For more information, see the following links:


2. NABUR is not a platform to rant on 

We encourage people to discuss the news and topics of interest, but political ranting, campaigning and views on controversial topics need to be handled with care. Our guidelines prohibit ranting, over-posting and dominating/ hijacking conversations.

Over-posting is posting repeatedly about the same topic or replying to your own post to put it higher in the recent activity. Hijacking conversations means to dominate conversations, shouting down others or forcing conversations to return to your issue.

For a model on civil discourse, visit the Golden Rule, founded by chairmen George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton.


3. Use your true identity

To get to know the people in your NABURhood, it’s important to use your real identity. Therefore, we require you to use your real name and true identity, spelled correctly without any titles. We recommend that you use a photo of yourself as your profile photo, but as long as it is appropriate you can use whatever photo you like.

If you are concerned about your privacy, we do permit the use of your real first name and real first initial of your last name.

Impersonating another person is strictly prohibited. Making duplicate accounts to get around bans is prohibited.


4. Don’t use NABUR to break the law

Keep all comments, posts and replies legal. Don’t use NABUR to violate others’ privacy, threaten others’ safety, encourage violence, sell illegal things, commit libel, or post fraudulent content such as phishing or spam. 

Violating another person’s privacy includes but is not limited to posting content of private messages without the permission of the sender, posting non-public legal documents, posting banking information and posting medical history.

If threats of physical harm against any individual or group are made, Wick Communications staff will report it to the proper authorities.


5. Misinformation guidelines  

As journalists, we strive to report facts, and this platform is the same way. Misinformation can be dangerous, and can have massive consequences if shared. Please be sure to check your sources before posting, and to back up your posts with facts.

  1. Misinformation about current events
    • COVID-19 guidelines 
      • Our reporting stems from guidelines from the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the North Dakota Department of Health Services. Recommendations from them include washing your hands frequently, avoiding touching your face, staying at home when you are sick, avoiding close contact (being within six feet) with others and wearing face masks when in public when social distancing is not possible. We reserve the right to delete posts and deactivate accounts that spread false claims and conspiracy theories about COVID-19, including its causes, cures and prevention methods.
    • U.S. Census misinformation 
      • The U.S. Census count is mandated by the Constitution and conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau. The 2020 Census will count the population in all 50 states and will be used to determine the number of seats each state will have in the U.S. House of Representatives and to draw congressional state legislative districts. Any content that aims to mislead members about the time, place, means or eligibility requirements for participating in Census or discouraging participation is banned. Violators could be removed and banned from using NABUR.
  2. Misinformation in general
    • The Internet is full of good information and ways to educate yourself. It is also full of bad information, and some websites are used to specifically push out stories that support certain opinions. Before you post, check these things:
      • Do research on the funding of your sources*
      • Consider the reasons some websites are posting what they post
      • Review the veracity of stories through fact-checking websites like Snopes.com, PolitiFact.com, and FactCheck.org
      • Check the website url (sources like abcnews.com.co are fake)
      • Read the website’s “about” page and check for right or left-leaning slants*
      • Make sure you read past the headline and look at any links to other stories that are embedded 
      • Check the date. Stories from years ago can go viral again, distorting real events.
      • Check for satire (https://literaryterms.net/satire/). Sites like The Onion, ClickHole and The Babylon Bee post satirical content that should not be taken as real. For a list of satirical websites, see this link: https://blog.feedspot.com/satire_blogs/
      • Find what other reputable outlets are saying on the story 
      • *Note: just because a source leans a certain way or is funded by a certain group, for example, doesn’t mean it can’t be factual. Take a holistic view of your sources and decide for yourself if the source is trustworthy or not. 

6. Post appropriate photos and videos 

Keep any videos, photos, gifs and memes that are posted clean and respectable. Offensive memes, photos, gifs, videos or any form of media are prohibited.

Like news stories, photos and videos can be manipulated. For that reason, any Photoshopped or edited photo or video that distorts the news, spreads conspiracy theories, or spreads false information are prohibited. 

Deepfakes are prohibited. For more information on deepfakes, see here: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/jan/13/what-are-deepfakes-and-how-can-you-spot-them 

Sometimes there are videos or photos that are disturbing to watch or see, but they are still news. Please give adequate warning to your NABURs about the contents of such videos in your post before sharing. 


Violation of these guidelines and moderation  

By using our platform for news sharing and connecting to your NABURs, you agree to these guidelines. 

Wick Communications staff reserves the right to delete any comment, reply or post that breaks these guidelines, as well as to temporarily or permanently ban members. If threats of physical harm against any individual or group are made, Wick Communications staff will report it to the proper authorities.  

Right now, NABUR is monitored by journalists working to update the site and uphold these guidelines. Eventually, we are looking to add community moderators to our team of people working to make this site a welcoming place for everyone. Please stay tuned for future updates. 


Badge validation 

A blue checkmark with profile picture indicates that the commenter is a STAFF MEMBER of the Daily News and News Monitor. 


Additional policy resources 

As members of the press, we are protected under the First Amendment’s right to a free press. You also have the right to free speech. However, as a private platform, we have the right to delete posts that do not follow our guidelines.

Have a question? Contact us at: digitalmedia@wickcommunications.com