https://insidegovuk.blog.gov.uk/comments-and-moderation/
Comments and moderation
All comments are welcome and we aim to publish all of them, whether positive or negative. But remember they are subject to the Civil Service Code and the Cabinet Office social media guidance. We won’t publish comments which are in breach of these.
Note that the contents of this blog, including the comments section, may be subject to release under the Freedom of Information Act.
Please keep your contributions civil and relevant. We are committed to providing an atmosphere in which constructive and mature dialogue takes place.
When posting comments, please observe our site participation guidelines:
- be respectful of others who use this site
- stay on topic
- keep comments concise
- do not use language that is offensive, inflammatory or provocative (this includes, but is not limited to, swearing and obscene or vulgar comments). Harassing, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, racially offensive, or otherwise objectionable comments are not acceptable
- do not break the law (this includes libel, condoning illegal activity and contempt of court)
- do not use this site for party political purposes (this site is paid for with public money so it's inappropriate to engage in party-political activity)
- do not post personal information in comments such as addresses, phone numbers, e-mail addresses or other online contact details, which may relate to you or other individuals
- do not impersonate or falsely claim to represent a person or an organisation
- do not attempt to log on using another user’s account
- adopting an inappropriate username (one that is vulgar, offensive, advertises a third party, etc) is also unacceptable
- do not make any commercial endorsement or promotion of any product, service or publication not relevant to the discussion
- do not violate others’ intellectual property rights, including copyright and trademark
- only include suitable URLs in your recommendation. Links to websites we consider unsuitable will be removed. If you are considering including a URL, please make sure that it adds value and interest to the subject of your recommendation. Unsuitable sites would include those with racist material, pornographic or sexually explicit material, potentially defamatory material, anything which encourages illegal activities, material which infringes copyright, sites which purely plug or promote commercial products or services without containing material which enhances the subject matter, or sites which may offend our users
If you are aged 16 or under, please get the permission of your parent or guardian before participating. Users without this consent are not allowed to participate.
We reserve the right to suspend comments at any time. Where a comment is not published for a reason other than those listed above, the site moderators will endeavour to reply to the commenter by email explaining their reasons and inviting them to make appropriate changes so that the comment can be reconsidered.
You should remember that you are legally responsible for what you write.
When you use this platform, you also agree to our Terms and Conditions, acknowledge our Privacy Notice.
Moderation policy
Blog comments are pre-moderated to check they comply with the GDS blog participation guidelines above. If comments do not comply they will not be published.
Here is a brief outline of how we evaluate comments.
Is this comment on topic, does it add value to the discussion and can GDS answer publicly?
If so, post a timely response within 3 working days.
Is this person asking for information or detail relating to another GDS channel eg is it a GOV.UK content query?
If so, we'll pass the query on and ensure it is dealt with as quickly as possible. We will update the user on progress.
Does this comment raise an issue with a tool or transaction? Or is it reporting a bug or performance problem?
If so, alert the GDS team responsible for fixing the tool, transaction or issue and tell the user this has been done.
Is this comment a rant at GDS venting frustration or anger?
If so, STOP, monitor and discuss with the digital engagement team first, referring to the participation guidelines.
