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Welcome to the 'Moderation' section of the h2g2 FAQ. This is where you can find general information about moderation on h2g2.
If you want to see a complete list of questions answered by the h2g2 FAQ, you can go to the h2g2 FAQ Index at any time.
Contents of this Section
What is moderation and how does it work?
Following an extensive and successful pilot project, The BBC made the decision to allow h2g2 to switch from a system of post-moderation to reactive moderation. Reactive moderation means that the Moderators do not read all of the content on h2g2. Instead we rely on the Community to alert us to any content that breaks the House Rules via the complaints system. The Moderators read the complaints and will act accordingly. It is important that h2g2 (and hence the BBC) doesn't publish material that is unlawful, obscene, racist, homophobic or other types of material that break the House Rules. This differs from the post-moderation system, where everything was read within one hour of posting.
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How does moderation affect Researchers?
If you are the sort of person who abides by the House Rules, then you shouldn't notice a thing. However, if a member of the Community sees something that potentially breaks the House Rules, they have the option to alert the Moderators to this content using the complaints button.
The House Rules are effectively our guide to h2g2 etiquette, and sit alongside the site's legal Terms and Conditions as part of the agreement all Researchers sign on registering with h2g2. Please make sure you read them both before contributing to the site.
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How does the complaints button work?
The complaints buttons and links1 enable readers to flag content that breaks the House Rules. Complaining doesn't remove that content, otherwise it would be very easy to abuse this system; all it does is flag the content for the immediate attention of the Moderators so we can react to complaints in a very short time. Only content that breaks the House Rules will be removed.
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What do the Moderators do with content that breaks the House Rules?
For every piece of content that has been flagged as potentially breaking the House Rules, the Moderators will do one of the following:
Pass it - When your content is passed, you won't notice a thing. A Posting that has been passed will be visible forever (unless a complaint is made about it and upheld - see below). A Guide Entry that has been passed will remain visible until it is edited, or a complaint is upheld about it, at which time it is flagged for moderation again, and the whole process is re-applied; unfortunately, we have no way of safeguarding against a posting being offensive to future Researchers.
Refer it - In this case the Moderator is unsure about whether the content should be passed or failed, so they queue it, pending a decision by the h2g2 Team. Because the h2g2 Editors are not available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, the act of referring has to hide the Posting or entry while the decision is being made. This doesn't mean that your content has been removed; it just means that the content has been referred. Instead of the content, the site shows a message saying that it is currently referred.
Edit it - In some very specific cases the Moderators will edit content to fit the House Rules. Content will only be edited by Moderators in the following, very strict circumstances. In no way do we allow any other kind of editing, and if you think your content has been changed beyond these rules, please let us know by replying to the moderation email you receive, and we'll investigate. It's vital that Researchers do not feel that their content is being hacked around unnecessarily.
Swear words not caught by the swear filter may be ****'d out, at the Editors' discretion.
Unsuitable URLs in Conversation Postings (not Guide Entries) will be removed, and replaced by [Unsuitable link removed by Moderator]. Broken links in Conversation Postings (not Guide Entries) will be removed, and replaced by [Broken link removed by Moderator]. We edit out the link rather than fail the Posting because Researchers cannot edit Postings and put them back up, and it's not fair to fail an entire Posting just because of an unsuitable URL or broken link. However, Postings which consist of nothing but unsuitable URLs will simply be failed. Please see the House Rules for information on what constitutes an unsuitable URL.
Personal addresses, telephone numbers and specific contact details (except for emails, instant messaging addresses and so on) will be removed, and replaced by [Personal details removed by Moderator].
Fail it - In this case the Posting or Guide Entry will be hidden from view, since it breaks the House Rules sufficiently for us to remove it from the site (it might be defamatory, plagiarised or something else equally serious). In the case of Postings, this means the Posting will be hidden forever and replaced by a message saying the Posting is removed (unless we later override the Moderator's decision - see below for information on contesting a Moderator's decision). Each Guide Entry that fails moderation is hidden, but to fix this you can go to your Personal Space, pick out the relevant A number in the 'Guide Entries' section, click on the 'Edit' link, edit out the offending material, and reactivate it.
If you have a piece of content failed by a Moderator, you will be emailed with the details and the content that was failed. This only applies to new Postings, new Guide Entries, or Guide Entries which you have reactivated from your Personal Space.
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What happens to swear words?
h2g2 has never allowed hardcore swearing, yet the use of swear words on h2g2 remains one of the most common reasons for complaints. h2g2 now has a 'profanity filter' which will now automatically prevent any contribution (entries and postings) that contains an unsuitable word from being posted.
Should you create a posting, entry or journal containing a profanity, the message will not be added to the site. Instead, a warning will appear that reads:
This message / entry has been blocked as it contains a word which other users may find offensive. Please edit your message and post it again.
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What happens to non-English content?
As the Moderators' first language is English, they cannot necessarily understand content that is not in English, and so won't know whether or not it breaks the House Rules. We ask that short messages containing foreign language content should include an accurate translation into English.
Languages which we can translate fairly easily may be reinstated; however, for other languages we give no guarantee that they will be moderated at all, although we will try to moderate what we can.
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What if I disagree with a Moderator's judgement or editing?
You should reply to the moderation email you receive. If you have not set up a valid email address in your Preferences (click on the 'Preferences' button) then you should do so straight away, or you won't receive moderation emails.
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What is pre-moderation?
If a Researcher breaks the House Rules seriously enough for the Editors to be considering a suspension of their account, the Editors may put that Researcher into 'pre-moderation' instead of suspending them.
This means that everything they contribute to the site has to be approved by a Moderator before it appears on site; in the meantime, suitable messages are displayed instead of their Postings or Guide Entries.
It's also possible to put the entire h2g2 site into pre-moderation, so that everyone is effectively pre-moderated, but this has rarely been used, and would only be considered in exceptional circumstances.
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The moderation of Nicknames
Please don't try to impersonate others; including other community members or public figures. Everyone in our community has a unique User ID number, so you can't get away with impersonating other community members anyway, but it's rude and unacceptable to even try.
Adopting an inappropriate Nickname (one that is vulgar, likely to cause offence, etc.) is also not allowed, and if you do pick a Nickname that isn't acceptable, we will simply change it back to the default.
Please note that we do not allow URLs to be included in Nicknames.
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1 Often referred to as the 'Yikes' button.
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