Terms of Service
Commenting & Privacy Policy

(aka “The Fine Print")

Commenting & Content Submission Policy

Sharing thoughts and opinions with your neighbors is an important way to connect and be a valuable part of the community. The Petworth News policy toward comments is simple and is spelled out below. By commenting on Petworth News, you agree to abide by these terms.

Commenting under a pseudonym or posting as a guest is allowed on Petworth News; however, a policy of “be a good neighbor” is always in effect and a valid email address is required. Comments submitted with a false email address, even using the "comments as a guest" feature, may be deleted.

Feel free to disagree or agree with me or any reader, as long as you write what you’d be willing to say in person to your neighbor. If your tone, language, shared links and images or attitude is bad, or if you’re being a bully and using ad hominem attacks, your comments could be removed and your account could be blocked if the transgression is severe enough. The parameters for comment removal and account blocking are up to Drew as the moderator and site editor. No explanation for comment deletion is required by Petworth News (but if you get deleted and want to know why, contact Drew). Just be respectful in your comments and we're good.

Note that the commenting via Disqus widget closes 90 days after an article is published. Facebook comments remain open.

You may be held legally liable for the contents of your submissions if they contain defamatory, harassing or threatening content. You agree and acknowledge that Petworth News may preserve any comments or content you submit and may disclose comments or content if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that any such preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to comply with legal process, respond to claims that any comment or content violates the rights of third parties or protect the rights, property or personal safety of Petworth News, its users and the public. Petworth News, its editors, writers and support staff are not responsible for the content of any user supplied content or comment.

Privacy Statement

The following discloses information gathering and dissemination practices for Petworth News.

Petworth News will not provide any of your personal contact information shared or submitted to this site with any third party, unless under request of law enforcement.

Petworth News might use your IP address to help diagnose problems and administer the website - this includes hacks/spamming/abusing posts in which case you may be held liable. Petworth News may use log information in aggregate to gather and publish anonymous stats about readers, but individually identifying information will not be revealed, unless under request of law enforcement.

This site contains links to other sites. Petworth News is not responsible for the privacy practices or the content of such web sites.

Petworth News offers registration to a newsletter which asks visitors for contact information. The contact information is used to contact the subscriber the weekly email newsletter, for notification purposes or special updates. You will not be sent unrelated, unsolicited email by third parties, may unsubscribe at any time, and registration information will not be distributed or sold in any other fashion. The only exception to this is when under request of law enforcement.

Advertisers displaying ads on this site may be placing and reading cookies on users' browsers, or using web beacons to collect information, in the course of ads being served on this site. You may choose to not accept these cookies by adjusting settings in your web browser.

Community Calendar

The Petworth News Community Calendar offers readers a great way to find and submit local events happening in the greater Petworth area. If you have an event that you would like to add, use the event submission form and it may be added for you. The calendar is available for any resident or business of Petworth to promote events that benefits residents of the greater Petworth community (e.g., Brightwood, Crestwood, 16th Street Heights, Shepherd Park, Takoma, Park View, etc.). Events must be open to the public, must occur within the local neighborhoods and must be for the benefit of area residents. No personal events like birthday parties and no political or campaign-related events (except for official meetings like SMD or PSA meetings). Businesses may submit events, within reason. Please don't ask to list every karoake night, yoga event, open house or happy hour. The calendar is not a form of free advertising, it's so residents know all the amazing social and cultural events that happen in our area. Inclusion in the calendar is up to the discretion of the Petworth News editors. If you have any questions, please email the calendar editors.

Sponsor Advertisements & Content

Petworth News features sponsored advertisements and articles from local organizations, real estate agents and businesses that we feel will be of value to the community. These ads serve two important purposes: they help readers and businesses/organizations connect, and they help cover the cost of hosting this site and running Petworth News. Petworth News reserves the right to write about local businesses, restaurants or organizations without sponsorship -- basically, reviews or introductions, good or bad. Sponsored articles will be noted as such.

Potential for conflicts of interest with Sponsors
Short answer, there aren't any. A sponsorship doesn’t come with a guarantee that Petworth News won’t publish articles that might otherwise be unpleasant or undesirable to a sponsor, government official, neighbor or anyone we happen to genuinely like or dislike.

Organizations should sponsor Petworth News if they want to promote themselves to a wide yet local audience and show themselves supportive of a popular neighborhood media outlet. Sponsors do not receive any editorial control.

Affiliate Links, Monetization

Some links on this site may refer users to Amazon.com, Apple's iTunes Store, and other store and vendor links. I might get paid if you click an affiliate link and then purchase a product or service. So, feel free to click on those links and buy lots of things.

Copyright & Reuse: Text, Photographs, Videos and Images

If I took a picture of you and you want a copy, contact me and I'll be happy to email you a high-resolution version, at no charge, if I still have a copy. All photographs, images, art, videos and text on Petworth News are copyright Drew Schneider / Petworth News (All Rights Reserved), unless otherwise noted. If you wish to reuse something from Petworth News, please contact Drew for permission. I'm generally really open to sharing. No Petworth News content can be republished, except for short excerpts or quotes, without permission from Drew Schneider (this most certainly includes using an iFrame to put the entirety of Petworth News on another website, for example).

Petworth News reserves the right to change the Terms of Service / Commenting & Privacy Policy at any time without notice.