Forum guidelines
Monitoring messages
Although Allerdale Borough Council’s discussion forum does not
have a moderator, it does have an administrator who regularly
checks the messages and ensures that standards are maintained. The
administrator’s role is to remove offensive and inappropriate
messages, or to edit a message containing offensive or
inappropriate content.
Acceptable content
The forum is to be used for:
- discussing local issues
- exchanging information about local issues, places, events.
Allerdale Borough Council encourages healthy discussion about
issues that matter to local people and accepts that the forum is
likely to provoke different points of view.
Users are welcome to ask questions about Council business.
However, it should be noted that Council staff and members are not
obliged to respond to forum messages. If users require a response
they are encouraged to contact the Council by letter, telephone or
email.
Do not use the forum to request information about indicvidual
circumstances or cases. Please use the "Contact us" link at the top
of the page for this sort of enquiry.
Unacceptable content
The forum is not to be used for:
- swearing - whilst we understand that some
issues may be frustrating, no swear words will be tolerated on the
site and messages will be removed if they are found to contain such
words.
- posting libellous or
malicious material - comments that are
defamatory of individuals expose both the contributor and the
Council to the risk of legal action. The Council will therefore not
hesitate to remove any messages that it believes may contain
libellous content.
- distributing information on behalf of a
political party - the forum is not an
arena for promoting the ideals and objectives of any political
party.
- posting offensive messages about
groups or individuals (including councillors and Council
staff). Offensive messages can cause distress and anxiety and all
contributors are asked to refrain from making personal remarks
about individuals. Complaints or concerns about anyone who works
for Allerdale Borough Council (staff and councillors) should be
made through the proper channels (link to complaints page). Racism
or any other attacks on any person or groups will not be tolerated
on the forum. These messages may be forwarded to the police for
further investigation.
- revealing the name or contact details of
individuals who would otherwise prefer to remain
anonymous.
- promoting groups, organisations or commercial
ventures - it is not an advertising board.
- making Freedom of Information Act requests -
the forum is not the correct place for making these requests and
the deadlines for the Council to respond do not apply in this case.
(Link to FOI page)
- impersonating or falsely claiming to represent a member
of staff, an organisation or another individual.
- posting copyrighted material, without consent
- if relevant, link to a source instead.
If you are linking to external content, you should link directly
to that content. It is unacceptable to use link-thru systems to
mask the originating URL, and cases where this is found to be
happening may be edited or removed as appropriate. We reserve the
right to remove any links to any sites.
Removing messages
The website administrator regularly reviews new messages and
will remove any that fit the descriptions above. If the
administrator has to remove three messages from the same user, that
user will automatically be banned from using the forum again.
Messages are removed at the administrator’s discretion and the
decision to do so (and ultimately ban a user from the forum) is
final. In becoming a forum contributor, individuals are asked to
acknowledge and accept this.
The future
It is hoped that these guidelines will enable people to use the
forum sensibly and for the purpose for which it was designed. The
Council is reluctant to moderate messages before they are posted to
allow free discussion to take place without any time delays.
However, usage of the forum will continue to be monitored and
procedures could be reviewed at any time.