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Journal Community
The Journal Community is a marketplace of ideas for Wall Street Journal readers. Exchange opinions, ideas and tips on subjects ranging from the economy to the business of life.
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Journal Community is composed of Wall Street Journal readers like yourself who seek to connect with each other on topics of mutual interest. You can discuss everything from the economy and the markets to the business of life.
Discussions connect you with a group of individuals who are interested in sharing their viewpoints and learning yours on a shared topic, such as a company in which group members invest, an industry in which you all work, or a destination where members of your group frequently vacations.
Through Answers, ask other community members for help answering your questions on anything from new, interesting places to entertain clients, international hotels to avoid, advice on how to increase your company's second round of funding, ways you can minimize inheritance taxes, what to consider when sending your child to boarding school, hidden costs involved in buying a second home, and much more.
Connections puts you in touch with Wall Street Journal readers who share your background, tastes, or professional goals. If you read a post that inspires, intrigues, or humors you, make a connection with that person. Your connections can become business contacts, personal friends, or online colleagues.
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Community Rules
We welcome your thoughtful comments. There are certain rules that each Journal Community member must follow:
- You must use your actual first and last name when you post comments or participate in discussions. You may not represent that you are any other person, whether real or invented, or imply any connection with any person or organization with which you are not, in fact, associated.
- You must stay on the subject at hand.
- You must demonstrate respect for other members. If you disagree with an opinion, feel free to respectfully challenge that opinion with a posting of your own.
- You must not personally attack any other member. You will not stalk or harass another member.
- Mocking, baiting, bickering, taunting, name-calling and uncivil exchanges with other members are not allowed. You may not dominate the conversation or discourage participation by others. You may not threaten or promote violence, or wish for harm to befall another person.
- Comments which disparage traits with which people are born are not allowed.
- You will not upload, post or submit anything that is obscene or contains profanity or veiled profanity or that may be hateful or offensive on racial, ethnic, sexual, stereotypical or any other grounds; is harmful, vulgar or distasteful; or is defamatory, libelous, or invades another person's privacy or proprietary rights.
- Comments with self-promotional links are not allowed. Such links are permitted on your Community profile page.
- Excessive links to external web sites, comments in all capital letters, all-bold or all-italic postings, excessive blank space and objectionable profile photos are not permitted.
- You will not send any bulk unsolicited advertising, promotional information, commercial email or other solicitation (including without limitation junk mail, spam, chain letters or pyramid schemes of any sort) to any person through Journal Community.
- You will not upload, post or submit or otherwise make available any content that contains links to web sites with objectionable content.
- You will not upload, post or submit anything that contains viruses, cancel bots, Trojan horses, harmful code, or other computer software or programs designed to interrupt another person's enjoyment of Journal Community.
- You will comply with all applicable laws in participating in Journal Community and will not use the community for illegal purposes.
- You will not upload, post, submit or otherwise make available any content that you do not have a right to make available under any law or under contractual or fiduciary relationships (such as inside information, proprietary and confidential information learned or disclosed as part of employment relationships or under nondisclosure agreements) or that infringes any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright or other proprietary rights of any person.
We reserve the right to remove any content at any time from Journal Community.
Rather than responding in kind when other members violate the rules, we ask that you instead report that objectionable content by clicking the "Report Abuse" button visible on every comment.
If any member violates any of the above rules, we reserve the right to ban that individual from further participation in Journal Community.
If you feel further consideration is merited, email moderator@wsj.com.
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If you want to ask or answer a question, post a comment on an article, join a discussion group, or make connections, you will need to create an account. Journal subscribers already have an account and will simply need to set up a Profile. How do I set up a Profile?. If you do not subscribe to The Wall Street Journal Online, you cannot currently participate in the Journal Exchange. You can only read selected contents. In the future, we will make more features available to non-subscribers to augment the conversation.
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We believe in a free, open exchange of ideas in a respectful environment. To preserve a high quality of conversation, we have included many reporting features throughout the Journal Community. You may report offensive material including (but not limited to) vulgar, racist, derogatory or sexually explicit content, or spam. Our administrators will review the complained-of posts to remove any that violate our Community Rules.
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What are some of the reasons that a post would be removed from the Journal Community?
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Messages may be removed if they contain:
- advertisements
- profanity
- links to Web sites with objectionable content
- excessive links to external Web sites
- personal attacks directed at another reader
- "spammed" material that has been posted in multiple forums
- comments that aren't relevant to the forum's topic
- comments in all capital letters, all bold, or all italic
- comments with objectionable images attached
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What Journal Community features are only for WSJ.com subscribers?
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WSJ subscribers, identified by a special badge, can create subscriber-only groups and filter comments to show only subscriber comments. They also can set privacy options so their profiles are visible only to other subscribers.
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WSJ subscribers' names are shaded with a star. This badge helps subscribers identify and connect with each other. It is also our way of thanking community members who financially support our online efforts.
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At the top of each article, subscribers will find a slider that helps them identify subscriber and nonsubscriber comments. Moving the slider can change the appearance of nonsubscriber comments, making them "Fade" or "Hide".
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When you create a group, you select the "Subscribers only" option. You can also choose who can post new topics in your group: all group members or just you, the group owner.
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We encourage your constructive criticism. Please let us know what you like and identify areas for improvement. All feedback should be sent to journalcommunity@wsj.com.
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Are additional features scheduled for the Journal Community?
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We aim to continually enhance the Journal Community with the goal of best meeting your personal and professional needs. Let us know what you'd like to see next. Send an email to journalcommunity@wsj.com.
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Profiles
Your profile identifies you to other Wall Street Journal readers. You should create a profile to make it easier for community members to connect with you.
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We are working on exciting improvements to the Journal Community and our new profiles are the first step. For now, you can continue to use your old profile to comment and participate in the Journal Community.
In the coming months, however, we will be asking all subscribers to switch to their new profile so get ahead of the curve and fill out your profile today. Your new profile is completely private for the time-being and only visible to you.
If you are not a subscriber and would like the scoop on all great features coming down the road, subscribe today!
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Your profile identifies you to other Wall Street Journal readers readers who are members of the Journal Community. You should create a profile to make it easier for community members to connect with you. Listing your educational and professional background may help a former classmate or co-worker find you. Other readers can also gain a greater sense of your perspective when they read your posts. Adding a photo puts a face to your name.
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On the top right of any Journal Community page, you will see a link to your profile. Click on the "Edit My Profile" link to set up your profile. In the "Edit your professional information" area, you can provide information about where you currently work as well as previous employment. In the "Edit your educational information" area, you can list the schools you have attended. In the "Edit your interests" area, you can put whatever information about yourself you'd like to share with the community. What do I put in "interests"?
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Friends, colleagues, and communities on other social networks can access your profile on the Journal Community with a link to your profile URL. Send them the link that only you can see on your profile. Remember that only online subscribers can join our Journal Community Beta.
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This field is available for you to list whatever information you'd like other members of the community to know about you. You can write about your professional expertise, the companies you follow, your political interests, your hobbies, your family, you name it. Think about information that would identify commonality with other community members.
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The Journal Community encourages thoughtful dialogue and meaningful connections between real people. We require the use of your real name to prevent impersonations and bad behavior. The quality of conversations can deteriorate when fake names or nicknames are used. For members who have concerns about the use of your full name, make sure you adjust your privacy settings in your community profile.
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On the top right of any Journal Community page, you will see a link to your profile. Click on the "Edit My Profile" link to access the edit view of your profile. In the "Edit Your Photo" area, click on the "Upload a New Photo." A text box will appear, where you can place the file name for your icon. Use the Browse button to locate the image on your hard drive. Click Submit to upload it to your Profile. (Note: Your image must be under 2MB and it will be sized automatically to fit the Profile page.)
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To edit your picture or bio, click on the account tab in your Profile. You can also delete your account from this tab.
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Other community members will see everything in your profile, except your Profile URL.
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If you see information that is offensive or otherwise violates these rules, use the "Report Profile" link on that user's profile page to let us know.
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Why has my access to Journal Community been turned off? How do I reinstate my access?
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Journal Community requires that you use your real name. If you did not provide your full first and last name, your account may have been suspended. To reinstate access, please send your real name and username to customer service at journalcommunity@wsj.com.
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No. You need to register with your full first and last name. Using only your initials will lead to suspension of your account. To reinstate your access, please send your full name and username to customer service at journalcommunity@wsj.com.
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Discussion Groups
Groups let you create and manage your own discussions as well as interact with Wall Street Journal editors on topics ranging from investing and industry developments to careers and hiring to travel, food and wine.
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A Group is a set of Journal Community members who share common interests and engage one another on topics that matter to the members. Each group has its own title and description. The focus of a group can be as broad as world politics, or as narrow as state regulation of sub prime lending. Any Wall Street Journal community member can set up a group.
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There are two main ways to find discussion groups you may want to join. You can search by keywords that you would expect to find in a group name or description, or you can browse by category.
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You can create a new group in just two steps. First, click on "Create a Group" to give the Discussion Group a name and description, and then invite others to join.
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When you create a group, you are by default its leader. Group leaders can post topics for discussion and check back to respond to other members' comments. Any group member, though, will be able to post a discussion topic once the group is created. In addition, readers do not need to be invited to join a group; any community member may read or join a group.
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That depends on you and your group. How much time do you have and how active do you want the group to become? It often takes more time at the beginning to kick off a conversation. As the group grows in members and becomes more active, you will likely not need to initiate topics; they will organically develop as an ongoing conversation among members.
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You can guide conversations to help the group stick to the topic, but you are not expected to respond to inappropriate behavior. You can report comments through our on-site tools and our administrative team will review and take any necessary action.
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You must be a Wall Street Journal Community member to join a discussion group. Sign in, select the discussion group you want to join, and click on the "Join Group" button.
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Discussion groups let you start and join focused conversations with others who share your specific interests. Examples include tech stocks, Fed policy, Asian markets and so on. To share a topic that isn't already covered, you can start your own group.
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Once you sign in as a community member and join a group, you can post messages to the group. From the group page, select a topic, enter your comments, and click "Post".
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You must be a member of the group to create a new topic within it. From the Discussion Group's page or within a topic, click the "Create Topic" button near the name of the group. You can then give the topic a name and provide the body of the first message in the new topic.
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Comments
Find out about the most talked-about news before you get to the office. Read comments on the most popular Wall Street Journal articles and leave your own.
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You must be a WSJ.com subscriber and logged in to post comments. To add a comment, scroll to the bottom of a story and type your comment in the text box. Once your comment is ready to release, click Add Comment. Note: The Wall Street Journal reserves the right to remove any comment that does not comply with our Terms of Service.
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Yes. You can edit a comment up to 15 minutes after you post it. After that, no changes are permitted to preserve the flow of the ongoing conversation.
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Click a member's display name to view the member's Profile page. It contains information about that member, including comments posted within the Community.
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Yes. If you see comments that are offensive, spam-related related or otherwise prohibited by these rules, use the Report comment link next to the comment to let us know.
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The easiest way to see all of your comments is to click on your profile. You will see a box that lists your most recent comments. You can expand this list for a full view of all of your comments.
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Comment Tracking
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You can keep track of anyone who replies to comments you post or replies to another users comments on articles or grfoup discussions using the track replies feature. To use this feature on a comment you make, simply select the "Track Replies to my comment" check box before posting your comment.
To track replies to another users comment select the "Track Replies to this comment" link on the comment.
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How do I find out that a reply has been made to a comment I am Tracking?
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When a reply has been made to a comment you will see the number of replies to review in your profile. Clicking the link will take you to the tracked comments tab of your mailbox.
You can also review tracked comments by clicking the "View tracked comments" link on any comment you are tracking from the story or group pages.
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From the "Tracked Commentss" tab of your mailbox, you will see a summary of all comments you are tracking. From this location you can go directly to the comment thread, by clicking the comment body, to review the replies.
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To stop tracking the comment thread or hide the thread until a new reply is made, select the appropriate link from the right side of the tracked item on the "Tracked Comments" tab of your mailbox. A group of tracked comments can be hidden at once by checking the box to the left of the comments you wish to hide and clicking the "Hide Selected Comments" button.
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Answers
Get ideas, insights, and practical advice from an educated, savvy group of peers. Ask questions about anything from running your own business to buying a second home to upgrading your computer operating system.
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It's an online community where anyone can ask and answer questions on any topic that is of interest to our readers. Answers connects people to the information they're seeking with those who know it. Answers provides a way for people to share their experience and insight.
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If you read an answer and would like to follow up with the poster, click on the image to be taken to the poster's profile page. You can then send a message or click the "Connect" button to start a private relationship with this person.
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Under the Answers tab, type the text for your question and fill in the related category information in the "Ask a Question" box. Remember: the clearer your question is to people reading it, the more likely it is you'll get really good answers. Taking the time to choose the best category for your question will also help make sure it's seen by the people most able to answer your question.
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You can add details about your question, but you cannot delete your question. To add details or clarify your question, click on "Add a note".
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If you checked the email notification checkbox when you asked your question, we'll send you a message in your message center each time someone new answers your question. Otherwise, you can check for answers from your profile page. In your question list, you can see how many answers your question received and access the answers.
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Once you have posted a question, choose the best answer. Click Choose as Best Answer next to your chosen answer. Your question is considered closed when a best answer is selected.
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After I choose the best answer, can I change my mind and choose a different answer?
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No, you cannot. Only one Best Answer is allowed.
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If nobody answers your question, you can try rewording your question and asking it again or search Answers to see if anyone else has received an answer to a similar question.
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Connections
Make connections with Wall Street Journal readers who share backgrounds, tastes, or professional goals. Create your own network of likeminded professionals
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One definition of community is people meeting and discussing their shared interests. That's the whole idea behind Wall Street Journal Community. When you add connections, you help build the community. In practical terms, you add connections so you can see what others are doing, learn from them, share information with them and stay in touch.
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Go to another member's profile, and click "Connect".
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In your inbox, you can accept invitations from other members to connect. If you accept, your profile will be listed on that member's connections list, and that member's profile will be listed on yours. Refusing the invitation does not send a denial notification to that user.
Your Profile Here…
Set up your profile to connect with members of Journal Community.
Your profile gives you access to personal messages, connections, and Group invitations.