Rules and moderation policy

www.wakefieldvcs.org discussion forum rules and acceptable use of comments

We want participation in our discussion forums to be a rewarding and positive experience for everyone involved. Here are some rules and guidelines to help ensure that it remains a safe place to participate. You can report unsuitable content and breaches to these guidelines using the ‘report abuse’ link.

1. Write in plain English. It is important that you write your comment in a way that everyone can understand. This includes avoiding jargon and spelling out any acronyms that you may use in your own line of work.
2. Be concise. Other users are more likely to read your contribution if it is concise. For this reason, we aim to summarise content into 100 to 150 word articles and do not tend to publish any articles longer than 400 words.
3. Stay on-topic and do not go outside the scope of the topic under discussion. Do not post messages that are unrelated to the forum, blog, webchat or wiki discussion you are contributing to. Suggested topics need to be of relevance to this website. VAWD and its partners may also request that they are held in a private discussion forum if the topic is of a sensitive nature.
4. Be respectful of others. Debates may be lively but should be a positive experience for everyone involved. Comments should be civil and must not be malicious or designed to offend. No references should be made to an individual’s character or personality. Do not swear or make obscene comments.
5. Do not incite hatred on the basis of sexuality, gender, race, religion or any other personal characteristic.
6. Do not break the law. This includes libel, contempt of court (comments which may affect the outcome of a court case), condoning illegal activity or posting messaging that breaches the confidence of third party intellectual property rights. You are legally responsible for what you write and by submitting a comment you undertake to indemnify Voluntary Action Wakefield District and the Wakefield Together Partnership from any issues arising from its publication.
7. Do not post personal information. This relates to addresses, phone numbers or other online contact details relating to yourself or others.
8. Do not advertise products and services, or engage in spamming. No advertising or promotion is allowed unless it is for an event, publication or similar item that has direct relevance to the subject. You must not add the same comment to more than one forum, or more than once to a discussion. Sharing information to help others locate knowledge and expertise is welcomed if relevant to the subject being discussed.
9. Do not add inappropriate links. All links submitted must be appropriate for a general audience and must not link to material that is obscene, defamatory or inciting hatred or violence.
10. Do not mislead others by falsely claiming to represent a person or organisation or abusing our registration procedure.
11. If you are under 18 you must get your parent/guardian’s permission before taking part in these online discussion forums. Users without this consent are not allowed to participate or provide us with personal information.

Discussion forum moderation policy

Being involved in discussions

VAWD encourages open, lively debate and the majority of discussions on this website are open discussions. This means that comments are not pre-moderated by VAWD before they are published and are self moderated by the community that uses them. Users of these discussion forums are encouraged to report any abuse and if other users breach the discussion forum rules and acceptable use of comments. This will send an alert to VAWD to review and deal with any breaches of the policy and remove corresponding data if appropriate during moderator hours. VAWD will also monitor discussions to review and deal with any breaches of the policy but not edit comments before they are published or delay their publication.

If a discussion is of a sensitive nature and is a closed discussion it will be moderated and this will clearly be stated on the forum. This means that comments will not appear immediately on the forum.

Please note that the decision to edit, publish and/or delete comments and new topics remains at the discretion of VAWD. View our discussion rules and acceptable use of comments for more information.

Starting a new topic

Topics submitted for discussion forums on this site are checked by VAWD and its partners against the moderation policy outlined in our terms and conditions before they are published. This is to ensure that topics are suitable for this website and that any sensitive discussions that should be held in private can be activated within a ‘private’ forum environment and/or moderated if the nature of the discussion requires this.

About the moderators

Moderators regularly visit the forums and where appropriate submit posts to encourage discussion. They facilitate online consultations to ensure that information contained in them is accessible and that everyone can take part. They encourage debate by asking questions but will not offer opinions. Moderators are concerned with the quality of the discussion, rather than the interests of one individual, group or idea over another.

The site will usually be moderated between 9.30am and 5pm Monday to Friday. Comments made in open discussions will be published outside of these hours and you can submit and read posts at any time. Closed discussion comments will be published in moderator hours, which may vary.

View our full terms and conditions about the discussion forums and our website