Blog Guidelines for Colleges or Departments
WVU provides this blog service (hereafter referred to as the “Service”) in support of communications conducted by the University community. The Service is made available to WVU departments who wish to participate in an approved WVU blog.
I. Service Guidelines
Use of the Service is subject to all applicable WVU policies and local, state, and federal law. Applicable WVU policies include but are not limited to:
A. World Wide Web Policy
B. Copyright Infringement Policy and Guidelines
C. Appropriate Use of Information Technology Resources Policy
D. Access, Security and Control of Data and Information Policy
II. Service Description
A. Registration
Faculty or staff members are eligible to register for the Service by submitting the registration form. A WVU Master ID is required. Requests should be reviewed in 10 business days. Questions about the Service should be directed to 304-293-5305.
At this time, the Service is not available to individual students or student organizations.
B. Cost
The Service is provided free to departments through WVU Web Services.
C. Template
A default template will be provided for approved blogs. Requests to modify the default template will be accommodated by Web Services as time permits.
Blogs will have the following disclaimer on each page: “The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author (s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of West Virginia University.”
D. Ownership and Copyright
All material on the blog must be in compliance with copyright laws.
The copyright and all related rights to the original work posted are owned by and are the sole responsibility of the blog owner.
E. Practices Regarding Use and Storage
Photographs posted in the blog should be appropriate for a University Web page and be consistent with the blog’s content.
If blog owners choose to publish comments, the blog owner is responsible for moderating comments to ensure they are appropriate, relevant to the blog’s content, and meet University Web page guidelines.
Unlawful communications, including threats of violence, obscenity, child pornography and harassing communications are prohibited.
Users cannot sell or advertise for non-University entities.
The Service may not be used to create pages primarily for personal gain.
WVU intends to archive the content of all blogs in the Service for non-commercial, historical purposes. By using the Service, authors grant WVU non-exclusive rights to archive blog content in any format.
WVU reserves the right to remove at any time, at its sole discretion, any content posted on the Service that it deems in violation of University, local, state, or federal laws.
F. Commenting Guidelines
Discourse and dialogue are fundamental to the learning process. West Virginia University draws its strength from the ideas and enthusiasm of its students, faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, and friends. We hope users will submit relevant, well reasoned comments that advance topics being discussed. Comments that are off-topic or inappropriate may not be published.
Comments that are abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-oriented, or any other material that may violate any applicable laws may not be published. Any comments that involve name-calling, personal insults and personal attacks will not be posted. Posting such comments may lead to users being immediately and permanently banned (and your service provider being informed). The IP address of all comments is recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. The webmaster, administrator, and moderators of a blog may remove any comment at any time. Blog users agree to any information entered being stored in a database. While this information will not be disclosed to any third party without the user’s consent, the webmaster, administrator, and moderators cannot be held responsible for any hacking attempt that may lead to the data being compromised.
G. Modifications to Service
WVU reserves the right to change at anytime at its discretion the provisions of the blog service.