Welcome to North Coast Times Engage. By accessing and using our website, you agree to the following terms and conditions. Please read them carefully.

At North Coast Times Engage, we encourage submissions that foster constructive and respectful discussion. The following terms govern the submission of opinion pieces, letters to the editor, and any comments posted to our platform.

You should also read our Submission Guidelines

At North Coast Times Engage, we encourage submissions that foster constructive and respectful discussion. The following terms and guidelines govern the submission of opinion pieces, letters to the editor, and any comments posted to our platform.

General Terms

  • Editing: New England Times may edit your submission for clarity, brevity, or legal reasons. We may also make changes to ensure the piece aligns with our editorial standards.
  • Publication: We do not guarantee that your submission or comment will be published. Each submission is reviewed by our editorial team, and we retain the right to accept or reject any piece.
  • Bigotry: We will not publish anything that is sexist, homophobic, transphobic, racist, or otherwise bigoted. If your submission incites hatred or demeans individuals, it will not be published.
  • Mis and disinformation: We will not publish any piece or comment that promotes misinformation or disinformation, conspiracy theory, or harmful ideology.
  • Defamation: We will not publish any piece or comment that is defamatory or contains unsubstantiated allegations.
  • Declaring Interests: A vested interest is not a barrier to writing, but transparency is important. If you hold a formal role in an organisation relevant to your piece, please disclose your title and the name of the organisation. While it’s not mandatory, disclosing potential conflicts of interest helps maintain transparency.
  • Academics welcome: We strongly encourage and welcome any academics wanting to submit a general public version of their research or paper, or commenting on their area of expertise. Please include your affiliation in your submission, and do your best to keep the language as accessible as possible, minimising jargon.
  • Email Address: You must provide a working email address for your piece to be published.
  • Anonymity: As a general rule we do not allow anonymous submissions. If there is a fear for your safety please reach out to us to discuss, but we will only post a submission anonymously after we have verified your identity and your reasons for requesting anonymity.

Opinion Pieces

  • Word Count: Opinion pieces should be between 300 and 1,200 words in length.
  • Multimedia: You may upload graphs or images if they are relevant to your piece.
  • Submission Format: Opinion pieces can be submitted as Word documents.
  • Citations: We encourage you to link to relevant articles or sources within the text of your submission. The only time footnotes should be used is when a source is critically important to the piece and is not available online.
  • Exclusive Submission: We only accept original material that has not been published elsewhere. Please do not shop your piece around to other publications.

Letters to the Editor

  • Word Count: Letters to the editor can be up to 400 words.
  • Submission: Letters may be submitted in response to any article on North Coast Times or other issues of interest.
  • Review and Editing: All letters will be reviewed, and we reserve the right to edit or reject letters at our discretion.

Quick Word Comments

  • Length: Comments for the “Quick Word” section should be no longer than 100 words.
  • Review and Editing: All comments will be reviewed, and we reserve the right to edit or reject letters at our discretion.

Comments Section Guidelines

Our comments section is a space for healthy, constructive, and challenging conversations. To maintain a respectful and safe environment, we ask that you follow the guidelines below. These commenting guidelines apply to both this site and our social media spaces.

  • Respectful Dialogue: Please be respectful to your fellow commenters. We encourage disagreement, but it should be expressed in a respectful manner.
  • Prohibited Content: We do not allow abusive, racist, sexist, or predatory behaviour, as well as threats, ALL CAPS, or advertising messages to be posted in comments.
  • Personal Attacks: Criticise ideas, not people. Personal attacks are prohibited.
  • Offensive Content: Comments that may cause offence, contain prejudicial language, or are profane will not be published.
  • Harassment or Intimidation: Comments that harass, intimidate, or degrade others based on gender, race, class, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or similar will be removed.
  • Illegal Activities: Comments advocating illegal or violent acts will be removed.
  • Privacy: Do not include personal information about yourself or others, such as addresses, phone numbers, or workplaces, in your comments.
  • Spam & Advertising: Spam, advertising, and promotional content are prohibited.
  • Impersonation: Do not pretend to be someone else or claim affiliation with the article or subject matter inappropriately.
  • GIFs and memes: while graphics are sometimes appropriate in comments, as a blanket rule comments with any attached image or link will be deleted if it is not contributing to the discussion. GIFs or memes intended to insult or belittle will always be deleted.
  • Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code: Any violation of the Therapeutic Goods Advertising Code, such as false endorsements or promoting the misuse of products, will result in removal of the comment and potential suspension.

A couple of other points to keep in mind:

  • Moderation: Due to the volume of comments we cannot engage in correspondence over why a comment was not published. If your comment is not approved, including hidden on Facebook, or deleted, please review the guidelines and resubmit if necessary.
  • Blocking: We do routinely block people who are in breach of these guidelines or are abusive towards us. If you believe you have been unfairly blocked, email engage@nctimes.com.au
  • Public Nature: Comments on our platform are public. If your comment is approved, it will be visible to others.

Enforcement and Suspension

We reserve the right to suspend or ban users who violate these guidelines. If we determine that you have breached our commenting standards, you may receive a suspension notification via email. We reserve the right to suspend or ban accounts at our discretion, without notice, to protect our community, journalists, and readers.

We do our best to ensure fairness, but we cannot guarantee the publication of every comment or submission. We reserve the right to enforce these guidelines as we see fit, including banning users for severe or repeated offenses.

Limitation of Liability

North Coast Times is not responsible for any third-party content, including user-submitted comments, opinion pieces, or letters to the editor. We make no warranty regarding the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of any content submitted by users. We are not liable for any damage, loss, or injury that may result from the publication or use of submitted content.

Changes to Terms and Conditions

We may update these Terms and Conditions from time to time. When we do, we will post the updated version on this page and indicate the date of the latest revision. By continuing to use North Coast Times Engage, you agree to the updated terms.

For any questions or concerns about these terms, please contact us at engage@nctimes.com.au.