Alice in Dallas

Dear myFOXdfw Bloggers,

Since we launched the Community page in July, we've grown into a community of more than 4,100 people! That's a LOT of different opinions to share!

We want everyone to feel open to sharing their thoughts on this board. But with that opportunity comes responsibility on EVERYONE's part.

It's very easy to type something on the fly with passion—especially when responding to a comment or post you don't agree with. I am asking you all please, please do one little thing; you can call it an early Christmas present to me and my co-workers:

PLEASE COUNT TO TEN BEFORE YOU TYPE.

Please ask yourself: is it right to be childish in response to someone else's childishness? Someone called me a name – do I have to stoop to that person's level and return the gesture? Is this the response of a mature adult? And finally, would I be better off just ignoring this person?

The moderators will henceforth NOT penalize someone for being mean or disagreeing with you. We'll only penalize someone for breaking one of our rules, to which you all agreed. (To see them again, click "Blogging Policy" at the very bottom of this page.) If you spot someone breaking a rule like selling something on their blog, report it by all means. Otherwise, please let us concentrate on the reason we're here: to update the latest news and information on the rest of the site.

We need YOUR help keeping the calm in the blogs – and we can all start by keeping calm every time we type something.

Thank you, and please take time to enjoy some of the good things this holiday season.