Draft — not yet approved by the community council. The rules below are a starting point, written from ordinary practice for community websites. They take effect as the council’s policy only once the council has agreed them, and anything here can be changed.
You can comment on news posts on this site if you have a village login. Comments appear straight away — nobody approves them first — and a councillor may take one down afterwards if it breaks the rules below.
What comments are for
Asking about, adding to, or correcting the thing the post is about. Somebody who knows when the hall reopens, or that the times have changed, or who has a question a neighbour can answer — that is what the space is for, and it is why threads close ninety days after a post is published rather than staying open for ever.
Comments are the views of whoever wrote them. They are not the views of Auchencairn Community Council, and publishing one is not the council agreeing with it.
What will be taken down
A comment will be removed if it:
- Abuses or harasses somebody, or is likely to frighten them. This includes a named person, and it includes somebody who is not on this site to answer.
- Is discriminatory. Anything hostile to a person or group because of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation — the characteristics protected by the Equality Act 2010. The council holds itself to the standard expected of a public body here, whether or not the law obliges it to.
- Publishes somebody else’s private information — an address, a telephone number, a photograph of a child, a person’s health or circumstances — without their agreement.
- Makes accusations about a person or a business that could damage them and cannot be shown to be true.
- Is unlawful, or encourages something unlawful.
- Is advertising, spam, or repeated posting of the same thing.
- Impersonates somebody, or uses an account that is not yours.
- Has nothing to do with the post, when it would be better as a message to the council or a note to a group.
Disagreeing with the council, or with a councillor, is not a reason for removal. Neither is being blunt about something the council has done. A village council that deleted criticism of itself would deserve the reaction it got.
What happens when something is removed
The comment stops being shown and a note takes its place, saying that a comment was removed under this policy. Nothing is quietly deleted: a reply underneath a comment that had vanished would make no sense, and a removal nobody can see looks like something being hidden.
The note does not repeat what was said, and it does not name the councillor who decided. The decision is the council’s.
If you think a decision was wrong
Say so, and it will be looked at again by somebody other than whoever made the call. The original comment is kept, so it can be read and put back. Write to the council through the contact form, or raise it at a meeting — the dates are on Meeting dates.
The same route works the other way. If you have seen a comment that breaks these rules, tell the council rather than answering it.
Your own comments, and your details
- Your name is published with your comment. Your email address is not, and is never shown to other readers.
- You can take your own comment down yourself, using the Delete mine button under it, as long as nobody has replied to it. You do not have to give a reason, and no note is left in its place — changing your mind about something you said is not breaking any rule. It stays available after the thread has closed to new comments.
- Once somebody has replied, ask instead. A comment with an answer under it is half of somebody else’s conversation, so removing it would leave their reply making no sense. Tell the council and it will be dealt with — you still do not have to give a reason.
- No pictures are fetched from anywhere else. This site does not use Gravatar or any other avatar service, so commenting here does not tell another company that you did.
- How the site handles personal information generally is in the privacy notice.
Who moderates
Community councillors, who are volunteers and live here. They are not watching the site continuously, so something may sit for a while before anybody sees it. If a comment needs dealing with quickly, tell the council rather than waiting.
To be added by the council: whether repeated breaches lead to an account being suspended, and who decides that.