Code of Conduct

Disclaimer

The Discussions area of Morningstar Office is offered for informational purposes only. Morningstar, Inc. cannot be responsible for the content or accuracy of any information in the Discussions area and shall not be responsible for any trading or investment decisions made based on such information.

Morningstar Office Discussions

The Discussions area is a place to learn more about Morningstar Office, to make suggestions for its improvement, and to interact with your fellow Morningstar Office subscribers.

The Discussions area is divided into five topic Forums:

Each forum contains a list of topics. When you first enter a forum, the topics with the most recent posts will be listed. You can scroll backward and forward by using the arrows at the bottom of the window to page through all of the topics in a forum.

In the list of topics, you will see the name of each topic, the author of the original post, the number of posted replies, and the date and time of the most recent post. To enter a topic, click anywhere on its line.

 

Starting a New Topic

You are welcome to start a new topic within any forum.

  1. Go to the forum you're interested in and click on New Topic.

  2. Type in a topic name and your message.

  3. Click Preview to see how your message will appear.

Note: Remember, whatever you post can be read by all Morningstar Office subscribers, so your message must adhere to Morningstar's Code of Conduct. Morningstar reserves the right to delete any post without warning.

  1. Click Post.  Your message will appear on the topics thread.

  2. You can also click Cancel to return to the list of topics without posting a message.

Replies

Most topics will have a number of replies in response to the original post. The number of replies in a topic is listed alongside the subject of the conversation and they appear below the original post. If there are more than 20 replies, you can use the page arrows at the bottom of the window to view more replies.

Posting a reply is similar to posting a new topic. Click on Post a Reply, type in a subject and a message, and click Post, Preview, or Cancel.

Note: If your reply doesn't address the current topic, please start a new one.

Jump to a Specific Topic

Within each topic is a navigational feature that allows you to jump to any topic in the Forum simply by typing in the number of the topic you're interested in and clicking Go.

Inappropriate Topics and Posts

If you think any part of a topic or reply is inappropriate, please do not respond within the Discussions area. Instead, let us know by clicking Feedback in the upper right-hand corner of the page. Please tell us the Forum and the topic number of the offending post and let us know why you find the message inappropriate.

If we determine that the post violates our Code of Conduct, then we will take action.

 

Code of Conduct

Deletions and Terminations

Given that the Morningstar Office Discussions area is something of a "gated community" (you must be a paid subscriber to start a new Topic or post to an existing one), we'll hopefully avoid the problems that sometimes plague online bulletin boards, such as blatant advertisements, abusive language, etc.

Still, we reserve the right to delete posts without warning. While the below list is not all inclusive, we will specifically delete posts that:

Making posts such as these may result in Morningstar rescinding your posting rights.

Be Civil

We don't expect that everyone in the Morningstar Office community is going to agree on everything. Disagreement, after all, is the foundation of financial markets - for every buyer who thinks a stock is underpriced, there's a seller who thinks it's headed down the tubes. That said, please take care to post messages that disagree without conveying a disagreeable tone.

Using a condescending or nasty tone is the quickest way to inspire personal attacks, and there's no such thing as a civil personal attack. Do your best, and recognize that there probably will be misunderstandings, but if you can't disagree with an idea or investment philosophy without striking out at the person who follows it, then please don't post.

Again, if you think that a message is inappropriate, you can let us know by clicking Feedback and by including the Forum name, Topic, and post numbers. A moderator will take a look at it and take action if needed.

 

Be Honest

Other things that will tarnish your good name and get you in hot water:

Tips and Hints

Post Construction

Concise arguments, questions, and a good title go a long way toward promoting a conversation. And if you refer to an outside reference or site, include a direct link to it. You can use HTML, which is a hypertext language, to easily create a link in your post. The coding will look like this:

<A HREF="Internet Address">these words will show up as the link</A>

 Yes, all those carets, quotation marks, and slashes are part of the code. Here’s a before and after example:

Before

This is a great discussion!  You might also be interested in <A HREF=" http://news.morningstar.com/news/ms/Strategist/Dogs/strategistdogs.html">this article</A> on Morningstar.com.  

 

After

This is a great discussion! You might also be interested in this article on Morningstar.com.

 

It's cumbersome to type in a complete Internet address, commonly called a URL, so here's a shortcut: Open the site you want to link to in your browser and highlight the URL in the browser's address line. Then click the right mouse button to bring up the Copy/Paste menu, and choose Copy. Return to your message in Morningstar Office and position your cursor to the spot in your message where you want to create the link. Use the Ctrl/V command to paste the URL into your post.

Click the Preview button, located below the Conversation Message window, to make sure everything appears the way you intended.

Target Your Audience

Please post your topic only once, to the appropriate forum. Posting the same topics to multiple forums breaks up the replies and makes for a less cohesive conversation. That’s why a moderator will delete multiple posts, leaving only one available for replies. It’s okay to re-post a topic that lacked an initial response or originated in the wrong forum. But please use the forum descriptions to guide your post to the right audience.  

 

Some General "Netiquette" Tips