Comments

Seeking Alpha users find that discussion in comments can greatly build on the value of a published article. Commenters contribute different perspectives, extra insights, and often suggest helpful corrections or point out flaws in an author’s data or argument. Seeking Alpha users read our site to learn and digest actionable investment ideas but they are responsible for their own investment decisions. Questions and dissenting views in comments are therefore a crucial part of Seeking Alpha.

We understand that readers want to know about an article analyst’s background, and each analyst’s list of Seeking Alpha articles and biography is on their profile. In comments, however, critiques should pertain directly to the analysis in question. We believe that each article can and should be judged on its own merits, as one never knows from where the next great idea will emerge.

Users tell us that they appreciate the quality of the community on Seeking Alpha and that, unlike other forums or message boards, the site is largely free of spam, promotion, and offensive or otherwise abusive material.

We view Seeking Alpha as a community of investors, where inclusion is earned by constructive participation. Our primary responsibility is to build a framework for productive discussion for the whole Seeking Alpha community, so we may remove material which damages that discussion. All new users start out in moderation, and most move quickly to unmoderated posting once we have been able to assess the quality of their site contributions.

Though these same guidelines apply to the whole site, occasionally we moderate all comments on an article when we believe that this will benefit the specific discussion. Moderation decisions are made not by analysts but by our independent, in-house team at Seeking Alpha. We strive to make these decisions consistently and fairly. We do sometimes make mistakes, but we believe that on balance the community is a better place for our efforts.

Note that comments in breach of the guidelines below will be removed, and users may not be notified of deletions. Similarly, if a parent comment is removed, the replies that are threaded under it will also get deleted, so that the flow of discussion doesn't become nonsensical.

To report problematic content to the Community Content Team, click the Report Abuse link in the dropdown menu on a comment. If the concerns are not limited to problematic comments, please contact us: moderation@seekingalpha.com.

Why moderation and oversight?

People say one should never discuss money, politics or religion. Seeking Alpha focuses on the first of these delicate topics.

Passionate discussions are always welcome on the site, but we expect that user posts should be genuine, helpful responses and that users should behave with—and be able to expect—high ethical and intellectual standards from other users. So we will delete posts that we believe detract from civilized conversation and repeat offenders may have their posting privileges revoked. Such material includes, but is not limited to:

• Content that is not directly related to the context (on an article, this includes discussion of the author’s track record or credentials).

• Stereotyping, prejudiced or racist language about individuals or the topic under discussion

• Inciting violence messages, encouraging hate groups, calls for action and political violence

• Promotion of your own business or website

• Unclear or distracting formatting

• Thread hijacking (including links that lack explanation or relevance)

• Trolling or provoking another user or a analyst

• Violations of another user’s privacy

• Attacking non-native English speakers for linguistic mistakes.

Covid & vaccine-related misinformation: 

• We do not allow any kind of Anti-Vaxxer comments 

• Any harmful misinformation about currently approved and administered vaccines

• Misrepresenting vaccine substances  

We must also address the delicate intersection of politics and investing. They are inextricably linked, but we are an investment website, so we keep the conversation focused on investing. That means:

• Political comments should be about the investment implications

• Political comments should not wade into critiques of one party vs. another

• Political comments should avoid political science unless directly related to investment risk assessment

• Political comments should avoid policy advocacy

Political Section 

We recognize that some people want to discuss politics, so we now provide an area on the site to do that with a daily page you can use for your comments and discussions. Please keep comments here civil and avoid attacking fellow commenters. We remove comments under the following categories:

• Personal attacks on another user account 

• Anti-Vaxxer or covid related misinformation

• Stereotyping, prejudiced or racist language about individuals or the topic under discussion

• Inciting violence messages, encouraging hate groups and political violence

Bio, Account User name, Profile Picture

Seeking Alpha is a platform for serious investment-related discussion and debate. The account user name, profile picture and bio should be suitable for a serious website. 

What is considered offensive: 

• Mocking/insulting an author or fellow user 

• Deliberately misspelling a company or political party name, tampering with a logo in an offensive way

• Mocking/insulting a famous personality/celebrity name or image 

Copyright Policy

We do not permit copyright infringement. If you intend to use third-party content on this site, make sure you have a legal right to use it.

Direct Messages

Seeking Alpha provides direct messaging for users to engage in one-on-one conversations. Users who send unsolicited or promotional offers, or threatening, insulting or abusive content to other users, risk being banned temporarily or permanently from posting and excluded from the Seeking Alpha community. Such messages should be reported to the Community Content Team by clicking the “Spam” button above the message thread.

Voluntary removal of content

We strive to maintain Seeking Alpha articles and discussions as a useful resource and an accurate archive of user perspectives. Once you have contributed to the discussion, your contributions become part of the site as a whole, and as a result we cannot generally remove comments at your request.

Corrections to comments

Users can now edit and delete their own comments after they have been submitted.

Disclosures

If you receive money for writing your comments (for example, as an IR professional or a paid consultant) you must disclose this by adding a declaration below comments (such as “I am the investor relations officer for XYZ company” or “I am a paid consultant for ABC company”). If you have some other material relationship with the company on whose stocks you are commenting (such as being an employee or a Director), you must disclose this on your user profile.

Corrections and disputes

Commenters sometimes alert our team to corrections or disputes about an article in their comments, and we forward such comments to the appropriate Seeking Alpha department. You can email corrections@seekingalpha.com for minor or typographical errors in analysis articles, and mc-corrections@seekingalpha.com for mistakes in news items. If you wish to file a formal complaint about an article, you should email disputes@seekingalpha.com, following the dispute guidelines, or click on the feedback link under the article. If you believe that an author or another user is receiving undisclosed payment for writing on Seeking Alpha, please send evidence to editorial-issues@seekingalpha.com. If you wish to contact the Community Content Team, please email us at moderation@seekingalpha.com. Please include your Seeking Alpha username and the URL of relevant comments, articles etc. We cannot respond to all queries we receive, but we will review and address all issues as required.

Terms of Use

We also invite you to familiarize yourself with our Terms of Use regarding your participation in our online community.Page updated March 2022