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Guidelines for Letters to the Editor

Overview: MendoDay wants the citizens of Mendocino County to let their many voices be heard. Letters to the Editor allow you to tell everyone what you know and what you think. We want to give you a share of the Freedom of the Press that is a human right that most people are denied. In general, we want you to have the maximum ability to express your opinion in your letter. At the same time, we don't want the Letters section filling up with spam or inappropriate materials. Please think about these guidelines before submitting a letter. We reserve the right to delete letters that abuse the guidelines.

Quick jumps:

Appropriate letter content
Inappropriate letter content
Duplicate letters
Who owns your letter?
Submitters from outside Mendocino County
Editing Tips
Helping others to find your letter
Your Name
Your Town or Area
Title for Your Letter
Tags (meta words)
Guidelines Checkbox
Public Domain Checkbox

Appropriate letter content: Your thoughtful opinions about issues, and information that might help others make decisions about issues. Issues don't have to be political. They could be about philosophy, religion, culture, human relationships, business, community matters, or art.

Inappropriate letter content: There are two kinds of inappropriate content for Letters. One type is content that should be submitted elsewhere within Mendoday. Ads should be submitted as Free Classifieds or as paid ads. Other categories for submissions will include: Event Announcements. In addition we will allow for citizen submitted news. If you are giving an opinion, in effect you are submitting an editorial and it should go in Letters to the Editor. If you are writing a factual report on something that happened, you may put it in letters, but you should also consider putting it in Citizen Reported News. Letters to The Editor is not a place to submit press releases (they may qualify for Citizen Reported News or Event Announcements).

Then there is truly inappropriate content. This could include but is not limited to spam, nonsense, criminal schemes, and cursing. Then there is the tricky question of personal attacks. We want you to express your opinions about public officials, in particular elected representatives. But if a business or your neighbor is doing something that makes you mad, be sure of your facts.

Duplicate letters: If you are writing a letter to several publishers, you should tailor your letter to MendoDay so that it is distinct from any others that may be published. Please do not submit the same letter more than once to MendoDay.

Who owns your letter? The policy of most newspapers in the United States is that if you submit a letter, it becomes their property, and they have the copyrights to any letter they print. We prefer putting letters intended to reach the public in the Public Domain. Materials in the public domain can be reproduced by anyone without permission. When your letter is published at MendoDay, it immediately enters the public domain. This means if people like your letter it may be reproduced all over the world.

Submitters from outside Mendocino County: MendoDay Letters to the Editor are for the citizens of Mendocino County. There is a vague but higher threshold for letters submitted from outside the county. This is not a place for press releases, ads, self-promotion, or lobbying by people outside our county. Letters from people who visit Mendocino County and want to comment are welcome.

Editing Tips: There is no spell checker built into the text box on the submissions page. Most people will find they get the best letter by writing it in a word processing program, checking the spelling and grammar, reviewing it carefully, and then pasting it into the submissions page. The other items on the submissions page can be typed directly into the page. You can type in the main body of your letter directly if you wish.

Helping others to find your letter: Not only will your letter be available to anyone who searches within MendoDay, but it will become available to anyone who searches the Internet. To insure that your page can be found easily, be sure to give it a title that reflects what is actually in the letter, and enter distinct Tags (aka keywords) in the boxes provided. If you have a very common name, add a middle name or initial to the Your Name box.

Filling in specific fields:

Your Name. We discourage the use of pseudonyms. If it is your opinion, own it. Include both a first and last name. Email addresses are not names. We reserve the right to block or delete any submission where the absence of the submitters known name makes us suspect it is violating our guidelines. Well-known local nick names are not only okay, but may better identify you to the public than your legal name. Use your sense.

Your Town or Area. If you live in Mendocino County just put in the town used for your mailing address. If you live in a well-known area, like the South Coast or the Anderson Valley or west of Willits, that is fine. If you don't live in Mendocino County include your town and state, be sure your submission is appropriate.

Title. Not only does Title help people decide whether to read your letter, it also helps makes your letter easy to find when people search for it.

Your letter: If you want your opinion to be appreciated, express it well. Begin with the topic or point of the letter. Keep your letter short and to the point. See also Editing Tips.

Tags (meta words): These help search engines find your letter. They are not required. Only one word per tag. For example, if you want to enter President of the United States, you choose the most important words, so Tag 1 could be president, Tag 2 united, and tag 3 states. If you enter more than one word in a tag field, only the first word will be used.

I believe my letter is within the MendoDay guidelines Checkbox. If you are here you probably read the guidelines, you are a thoughtful, public spirited person and you have already edited your letter appropriately. Click on the box and a check mark appears. There is no punishment for violating the guidelines except that we may delete your letter or block your access to Mendoday submissions pages.

I agree my letter will become part of the public domain Checkbox. By publishing at MendoDay, you are giving your letter to the public by placing it in the Public Domain. You are no longer its owner. If that is a problem for you, don't check the box and don't submit the letter.

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