Post in 15. Moderating or facilitation discussions

2006 Jul 11 12:18 UTC

Dear all,

Apologies for the multiple posts today but in response to my earlier email, I
was approached by a district council who are trying to sell the idea of
e-panels to their ICT development group who were

"scared at the thought that anyone could write something and have it
posted live without moderation."

My answer was:

There's nervousness from most councils about the idea of not premoderating
posts but from our own experience, we haven't had many posts we've needed to
remove.

Including our e-petitions forums, we've only had to remove less than a handful
in total since they've been live. It's the 'hot topics' where there's more
heated debate/polarised views that are more likely to attract offensive posts
or swear words.

eg We've got a very lively issue at the moment about a new 'Banksy' street art
image which has gone up on a council building. The council's asking members of
the public if it should stay or go. Most people support it but there are a few
people against it - a couple of whom have had rather rude and personal
responses to their comments. Out of around 200 comments I've removed two (I
think they're the first I've needed to within Ask Bristol which has now been
live since January 2005) - one included swear words, the other was personally
offensive towards another participant.  As long as you deal with the situation,
the council shouldn't receive too much criticism.

To allow posts to appear without premoderation shows that you trust people.
This encourages more participation and helps to show that you're willing to
listen without censorship.

To manage the forums, I check at least once a day (depending how lively they
are) and sometimes at weekends.  My policy is to be reasonably relaxed about
it. I don't mind the council being criticised. I don't mind a bit of bantering
as normally the participants handle themselves quite well and point out factual
errors etc. For people who swear or who are offensive, my policy is to remove
their post and email them to say why, asking them to resubmit without the swear
words/offensiveness if poss. But, as I said, it's been rare we've had to do so.

-end

Does anyone have any other thoughts that could add help the district council in
their deliberations?