Website and Social Media Moderation: Guidelines and Policy

Commenting and moderation policy

We encourage and welcome open, lively debate, but the decision to publish comments received via the external site remains at our discretion. The views expressed by any third parties are solely theirs and are not necessarily endorsed by Savio Athletics Club.

Website content moderation policy

We ask you to please bear in mind our guidelines when submitting comments. Where views have been sought, all comments will be considered before the response is published.

Moderation guidelines

We pre-moderate all of the comments we receive on the Savio Athletics Club website (http://www.savioac.org), which means that comments will not be published instantly on our website. Comments will be checked first by moderators who will monitor the site and aim to process comments as quickly as possible. This is not about censoring your views. The aim is to ensure that comments relate to the particular subject being discussed. Moderation will not be used to suppress legitimate, reasoned discussion. Sometimes there is a delay in publishing.

We will normally approve comments for publication as long as they:

  • Are on-topic. Please don’t post messages that are not related, are abusive or contain profanity or foul language
  • Respect other people. Comments should not be malicious or offensive in nature, and should not include attacks against public or private figures.
  • Don’t incite hatred on the basis of race, religion, gender, nationality or sexuality or any other personal characteristic
  • Don’t contain disparaging remarks or threats against countries, ethnicities or other groups of people
  • Don’t reveal personal details, such as private addresses, phone numbers, email addresses or other online contact details unless asked
  • Are reasonably concise, and don’t constitute spamming of the site (posting the same comment over and over)
  • Don’t impersonate or falsely claim to represent a person or organisation
  • Are not party political in nature. Whilst we acknowledge that references to political parties and their policies may often be inevitable, we reserve the right to exclude comments which are purely party-political in nature.
  • Don’t include swearing, hate-speech or obscenity
  • Don’t break the law – this includes libel, condoning illegal activity, and breaking copyright
  • Don’t advertise commercial products and services – you can mention relevant products and services as long as they support your comment. We do not support advertising or soliciting links for personal blogs or websites.
  • Don’t deliberately provoke other commentators
  • Don’t promote discussions or comments that instigate controversy

Comments categorised under the above will be deleted.

Savio AC encourages comments and intelligent discussion on our social media pages and website. When posting comments, please review and adhere to the moderation guidelines. Savio Athletics Club is not liable to respond to or engage in discussions that do not, directly or indirectly, relate to the club’s values, operations and objectives.

Posting comments that repeatedly violate the moderation policy may result in being banned from the page.

Image moderation guidelines

All images posted to any of our social pages are post-moderated. Any visual content that violates the moderation policy will be deleted. Users posting or sharing any images with Savio Athletics Club

  • Authorise us to publish the photos publically
  • Agree the images do not violate or infringe any copyrights
  • Agree that Savio Athletics Club is not liable to seek permission to publish any photos that users initially share with us, including photos of children and those under the age of 18
  • Agree that any images that are obscene or off-topic in nature or violate the privacy and safety of a user will be deleted

We strive to make our website and social pages a positive environment for engaging our members, and reserve the right to update the moderation policy as needed. We value your opinion, and thank you for contributing to the discussion.

We reserve the right to suspend comments at any time, and remove comments older than six months. Where we choose not to publish a comment for a reason other than those listed above, we will contact the commenter explaining our reason and inviting them to make appropriate changes so that the comment can be reconsidered.

We read every comment, and respond wherever we can.

If you find comments or images that may violate the moderation policy, you may report it to the moderators by emailing savio-ac-committee@googlegroups.com .

Facebook

Savio Athletics Club maintains a Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/savioathleticsclub/) and a Facebook Group (https://www.facebook.com/groups/435128586611573/) where we communicate with users who choose to ‘Like’, ‘Follow’ or ‘Join’ us and agree to be made aware of our events, receive news and general communication. Posts we choose to share do not imply endorsement on the part of Savio Athletics Club. We may re-share news, links and personal observations we believe are relevant to our voluntary organisation.

Facebook Moderation Policy

Savio Athletics Club reserves the right to monitor all postings to its Facebook page. All image and videos on our page are pre-moderated and approved subject to moderation guidelines mentioned above. Comments that contain the following will be deleted:

  • Political endorsements of parties, candidates, or groups
  • Commercial endorsements of products, services, organisations, or other entities
  • Content that infringes on copyrights
  • Discriminatory, racist, abusive, obscene, inflammatory, unlawful, or otherwise objectionable statements, language, or content
  • Solicitations of funds
  • Procurement-sensitive information
  • Any images which do not adhere to the guidelines mentioned above will not be approved for posting

Facebook as an official source of communication

Statuses and posts should not be considered as the source information from Savio Athletics Club. Any change or evolution in Savio Athletics Club’s official position on organisational, voluntary, sport or any other issue will be communicated through more traditional channels: official publications and statements on our website, e-mail or speeches.

Importantly, our decision to re-share should not be taken as explicit endorsement of any position or argument that may vary from Savio Athletics Club’s current official position, nor should it be taken as an indication of a possible shift in the current official position.

Following

Savio Athletics Club’s decision to follow a particular Facebook user/page does not imply endorsement of any kind. We follow accounts on Facebook we believe are relevant to our mission. This could include following pages of voluntary organisations, associations, companies and other commercial enterprises (and/or their employees) who comment on various issues.

Replies and Direct Messages

We will read all replies and direct messages sent to us and, when possible, will respond to them.

Complaints, Media Requests and Personal Issues

We encourage you to follow traditional channels (such as e-mail) to make a complaint.

Savio Athletics Club Posting

Some Savio Athletics Club members, coaches and helpers post under their own names or pseudonyms. Despite their affiliation with Savio Athletics Club, their posts do not represent the official position of the Club and should be considered the product of each individual as a private citizen.

If you have questions about the guidelines and policy, please contact savio-ac-committee@googlegroups.com

UPDATED: 23 NOVEMBER 2016