Ownership
Everything you see here is retained as our intellectual (such as it is) property. We retain all rights and copyrights to all material.
We do not own third-party advertisements on site, nor any material that we may use or republish with permission. The only exception is third-party material that we have included with respect to lawful “fair use” for information, education, or context*.
“Owners” of third-party content shared for educational, informational, or contextual purposes on GraniteGrok.com can request we add notes identifying ownership, the addition of a source link to the original material, or you may email nh.steve@protonmail.com and ask us to remove it. Once we verify that you are the legitimate owner of that material, it will be removed.
*All Images, Video, and Text not the property of GraniteGrok.com or its authors are reproduced under the “fair use” provision of U.S. copyright law for “purposes such as criticism” and “comment” (17 U.S.C. §107). https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/107
Advertising
GraniteGrok.com is an excellent place to promote fundraisers, picnics, events, candidates, or any size business. Please email nh.steve@protonmail.com or steve@granitegrok.com for more details.
Advertisements are not endorsements.
Note: The ‘Grok runs third-party ads and is an Amazon Affiliate. Viewing or clicking these ads or links helps us offset operating costs.
Comments (General)
We are not sentient. The existence of inappropriate comments is not an endorsement by GraniteGrok.com or any of its authors, sponsors, advertisers, donors, readers, or anyone else but the author of that comment.
GraniteGrok.com is not responsible for commenters’ content. We will remove inappropriate content at our discretion or the direction of the community and reserve the right to suspend or ban commenters for repeated bad behavior.
Commenters retain all rights to their comments, but by posting them here, we may use or link to them in any manner that pleases us.
- Don’t be a troll. You might get a warning, but you might not – that is also at our discretion. If we judge that you are (a troll), you will be banned. The decision to ban is final.
- We have disabled guest commenting. If you wish to comment here, you will need to open a public DISQUS account first. Apologies to our regular commenters—you may now need to verify your email addresses with DISQUS before continuing; blame the trolls.
- We want and desire your comments! Keep them clean, literate, and logical. You do not have to agree with us.
- Please try to Stay on topic.
- Comments will be moderated to avoid spamming, unkind/illiterate/idiotic commenters, and trolls.
- Obscene, abusive, off-topic, or annoying remarks will be deleted. Foul language, foul intentions, slurs, libel, or threatening to cause physical harm to anyone or their families will get you booted.
- Comments that include implicit or explicit threats or acts of violence directed at individuals or groups will be edited (removing the offending portion) or deleted. Repeat offenders will be banned.
- Go for the throat of the argument, not the person. And if you are going after the argument, be prepared to back it up – just throwing out assertion after assertion will end up with us throwing you out.
- Bee a jerk somewhere else – not here.
- This is our house, not yours. Be nice and you get to stay for a while. Being not nice will result in you finding the cyber portal to our cyber home real quick.
Comments (Off-Site)
Websites, aggregators, or social media sites with content shared from GraniteGrok.com that have their own comments section under our shared content – are solely responsible for those comments or their moderation per their guidelines. As noted above, we are not responsible for comments, and they do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the author or GraniteGrok.com.
Op-Eds or Letters to the Editor (LTEs)
The opinions expressed in op-eds are those of the authors and not GraniteGrok.com, its authors, advertisers, or affiliates. By sharing them, we are not embracing them, endorsing them, or advocating them, their authors, or their content. They are published to inform readers of news or opinions that may stimulate debate or activate voters and taxpayers.
Submission is no guarantee of publication, and we reserve the right to edit for length, clarity, or style.
Letters by or about candidates are not endorsements by GraniteGrok.com (see endorsements below).
Op-Ed/ LTE Guidelines
Submissions should be 600 words or less (more is not a deal-breaker) and submitted in a document format (word, Docx, etc.) in an email or attached to an email. Please include your name and the town you live in (and state, if not NH). While we can convert PDFs, please do not send op-eds or press releases as PDFs.
Note: We can publish your content with an anonymous byline or pseudonym, but we need to know who you are before we publish the work.
Submit an op-ed, press release, or other content you would like considered to steve@granitegrok.com
Submission is not a guarantee of publication.
Anonymous Authors
The 1995 Supreme Court ruling in McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission protects anonymous speech outright, saying: “Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority…It thus exemplifies the purpose behind the Bill of Rights and of the First Amendment in particular: to protect unpopular individuals from retaliation… at the hand of an intolerant society.”
Sharing/Email
Unless otherwise specified, we may make public all communications with you, including text and email.
As with the third-party content we share on these pages, those wishing to share our content, please abide by Fair Use (Title 17, Section 107), and if you use or reference our material, please link to the original content.
For use other than personal, please email nh.steve@protonmail.com for permission. Failing that, there is no other right to use, reproduce, transmit, license, or sell content from GraniteGrok.com without prior written consent.
Please note that Shared Content which includes Op-Eds, Guest Contributor content, Letters to the Editor, or Press Releases, may not necessarily reflect the views of GraniteGrok.com, nor does it imply that GraniteGrok.com shares the views of those who share our content.
Disclaimer
We are not doctors, lawyers, or financial advisors, to name a few, so under no circumstance are we offering medical advice, legal advice, investment advice, or any other advice. This is a news and opinion blog. We may report on or discuss research, papers, commentary, and the “expert” or amateur opinion of others, but that is not an endorsement or recommendation of these opinions. That is up to you and the professionals you trust and consult.
No topic, examination, or opinion offered by any individual author or Op-Ed writer is necessarily that of any other author on the site or that of Grok Media. Please do not assume it is., LLC or GraniteGrok.com.
Free Speech
We can say whatever we want anytime we want – you may not. It is our right and your privilege to post here. The First Amendment does not apply to us, only to the government (….shall not abridge….).
As LaShawn Barber says, “On this blog, your speech is a privilege. On your blog, your speech is a right. Learn the distinction.”
Adult Content Exception
We do not permit p*o*r*n, massage, escort, or other topics, but because of where the left has dragged the culture “naughty books in schools, for example,” it has become necessary to reference and comment on this material. We will make every effort to use content warnings, which we understand may attract the wrong eyeballs, but that’s not something for which we can or should be responsible.
Privacy
Your data is your data. We sell NOTHING to no one. We do not have time to look at it ourselves.
If you send us an email – we may still use all or part of it if it amuses us (see Email above).
What you write on a DISQUS comment is between you and DISQUS for ‘privacy’ – just like emails, we may respond to that DISQUS content you wrote and even post about it, but beyond that, we don’t care about the other data associated with it.
If you voluntarily sign up for the Daily ‘Grok (we use a WordPress Plugin), you’ll get our daily newsletter and, in the future, perhaps other emails as well – your data is then between you and the Plugin that stores your email address (for obvious reasons), but we don’t use (or care) about any other data points.
We have also turned on advertising. If you click on those ads, your data is between you and them, not us. Ditto anything else we may have on the site for our benefit.
We will not give, rent, or sell that information or any other data you send to or through us to anyone.
Endorsements
We are not a monolithic collective. Our authors do not always agree, and that includes candidates in primaries or even general elections. Individual authors may write about, promote, or endorse (or take to the woodshed) whomever they choose.
Different ‘Grok authors may endorse competing candidates in the same race. These are not an endorsement by GraniteGrok.com.
Writing about candidates, even in a positive light, is not an endorsement by an author or this Website.
If you do not see the word “endorsement,” none should be implied.
When we do endorse as authors, we encourage each to be clear that this is their intention.
When we endorse as a website (as GraniteGrok.com), it is based on a majority of our author’s votes on a selected race. When we do endorse as a website, the words GraniteGrok or GraniteGrok.com Endorses (name of candidate) will be conspicuous, so there is no doubt, with the understanding that this is based on a majority of our author’s preferences. It does not obligate authors who opposed the Site choice to support the endorsed candidate, and they are free to endorse whomever they choose individually and to write about that on GraniteGrok.com.
If you are unclear about whether GraniteGrok has endorsed a candidate, please email nh.steve@protonmail.com.
We will endeavor to answer you as soon as we are able, but when in doubt, we did not endorse.
Other
Please Remember!
We try to get our information correct, but sometimes, we don’t. So don’t think we are the be-all or end-all source of complete information! We ASK you to double-check what we say with other blogs – it keeps us honest, you get better informed, and the world will be a happier place for all (right…..)
DO YOUR HOMEWORK!