MLA Profession User Agreement and Moderation Policy

The MLA and Profession are committed to supporting vibrant and thoughtful discussion about professional issues. We see the site as a community and ask that readers submitting comments keep in mind the MLA’s Terms of Use, policies on discrimination and harassment, and statement on professional ethics and remember that comments are communications with your colleagues, including both other site users and authors.

To ensure respectful and thoughtful discussion, we require that participants adhere to these guidelines for Profession:

  • Stay on topic.
  • Avoid profane language.
  • Do not use the site for self-promotion or spam.
  • Avoid posting personal information.
  • Ensure that your post does not constitute harassment.

Harassment as defined in the policies linked to above includes but is not limited to the following:

  • verbal comments and nonverbal expressions that reinforce social structures of domination related to gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, ethnic and linguistic backgrounds, employment status, physical appearance, body size, race, age, religion, marital status, political affiliation, or physical or cognitive ability;
  • bullying behaviors;
  • using information systems, tools, and platforms to transmit sexually explicit messages and/or images, ethnic or racial slurs, engaging in any illegal activities, including, but not limited to, extortion, blackmail, and unauthorized access of another user’s account;
  • deliberate intimidation or stalking;
  • unwanted audio or visual recording;
  • sustained disruption of talks or other events, including through the use of features such as Zoom chat and reactions;
  • inappropriate contact, or the suggestion thereof, including physical contact;
  • unwelcome sexual attention; and
  • advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behavior, including implied endorsement.

To prevent spam, we do not allow links in comments.

Please note that the MLA has no obligation to display or use any comment in any way or to prescreen, monitor, modify, supplement, or delete comments, but we may do so at any time without notice.

We reserve the right to restrict you from submitting new comments or from otherwise participating in the site for any reason, including repeated submissions of comments that do not comply with these Terms.

Thank you for reading and contributing to Profession.