World News

Good morning,

The board has now moved to 'date order' format, as announced in this discussion
www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mb...

* All new discussions should contain a link to a story about today's news.

Discussions that do not clearly discuss a current world news story, or appear to be general political discussion or campaigning, may be closed, and off-topic posts may be removed.

Although we recognise that blogs and other individual/personal sources of information (sometimes called "citizen journalists") are an importantpart of today's media, we'd like you to keep your initial links to the more traditional news sources. Subsequent posts can of course then link
to other sources, including blogs - provided those links don't break the House Rules.

This is so that all users get a chance to read the new and original story before seeing how others begin to discuss it in context. Links to blogs on newspaper sites such as the UK's Guardian and Telegraph, and the BBC's own Blog Network (www.bbc.co.uk/blogs ), will also not beallowed as the basis for an initial post when starting a new discussion.

* Please don't start new threads on a news article if one already exists; duplicate/repeat threads will be closed, so please have a quick check to see if there's an existing conversation on the news story already. There's always a certain rush to report a breaking story, or alert other users to an update to an existing - if someone else beats you to it please don't repeat the update.

* Discussions about TV and radio documentaries/programmes, etc. are not considered to be "News" unless those issues are also being reported in the regular news outlets.

* Links to 'comment' or the editorial pages of online newspaper sites are not considered to be today's news. If you think they are about today's news then just find and link to the leading front page news story instead, you can add links to editorial pages later on in the discussion if relevant to the news story.

* These rules will apply even in the event of breaking news stories - if you see or hear a news flash on TV or radio, please wait until one of the news web sites has updated their pages and provide the link. This shouldn't hold things up too much - in most UK newsrooms today, new
stories are generally available pretty much simultaneously on air and online, and many of our users already use newsreaders, RSS feeds and SMS alerts to keep up to date with the news.

Example:

"Life forms discovered on planet Mars" - the story would be allowed as an initial post if backed up by a link to a news report in a traditional news outlet. It would not be allowed as an initial post if the *only* link provided is to a blog (we don't want to promote the web rumours and
conspiracy theories that crop up everyday, in various guises). A Channel 4 documentary about extraterrestrial life forms could be referenced in a subsequent post to the same discussion - but not as an initial post - for example, "Last night's C4 programme said there was increasing evidence of life on Mars" - would *not* be counted as news.

In general then the rule for all board members to keep in mind when starting a new discussion is "Is my message about today's news - and can I link to where it's being reported on the Web?"

Hopefully sticking to these guidelines will help to keep the forum on topic.

And please, *Everyone* on here deserves to be treated with due respect, please be polite to other board users.

Hi Dez

Yes, they don't have to be UK news websites.

(When you're linking to a news website, please link to the English version of the page. )

Hi again, Central Communities Team.

I see the problem being that the new house rule is very much open to interpretation.

For example, my thread about the NEC poll taken in Gaza, which suggested support for Hamas had collapsed, was surely of great enough significance to be discussed. Apparently the link I posted was not on page 1 of the newspaper in question, and so you removed the entire thread. Does that not strike you as bizarre?

I fear this strict new rule will cause a lot of ill-feeling.

Seventy is not considered old these days – so why did Judge John Hillen say a collection of child porn material was “as bad as it gets” – yet give the 70-year-old who admitted keeping this evil material for someone – a suspended sentence?

So if it was not on grounds of age - then why a suspended sentence?

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/...

In most cases a suspended sentence is a let off – in cases such as this – the children portrayed in such photos are not getting justice.

This posting has been hidden during moderation because it broke the House Rules in some way.

This posting has been hidden during moderation because it broke the House Rules in some way.

Somebody have decribed ones tread like a baby, which you sit and watch over. It is perhaps a little exagurated, but you do invest quite a lot of mental ressources in it, and tries to make sure that no-one can dress it down on argumental terms. Then along comes this chap 'j' from L:A and complains and says that it has to adhere to todays rule with regards to the specific link and that it is only the Santander bank that should be discussed and not the LOBBY, who forced the bank.

Well first of all my tread was started yesterday, and even under the new rules, if they were to apply to this specific case, I am sure they would allow to mention the ones that demanded the Santander Bank to comply.

Will you immediately restore the title and the buttons on my tread, as a hgrave misunderstanding has taken place, and my tread was started yesterday under the old rules.

What do you think others think, when you behave so unjust like this towards one of the most prolific writers on this board? They go away.

John why dont you simply open a new thread about the story?

This is a great way for many of us to share our views on current news topics - and I can see where the BBC is coming from with their new plans.

There are some who just wish to force their point on certain issues even though it is not current news.

Where the problem arises is what appears to be inconsistency of the mods. Why ban one current news item and not another?

Surely a little bit of transparency is what is needed.

Not for every individual comment banned - but if a thread is banned then why not give the reason for this?

"All new discussions should contain a link to a story about today's news"

And what happens if the BBC don't know what's happening in the NEWS? eg, al qaeda threaten to attack Germany in the fortnight following the German elections!

By the way Moderators when you've finished reading this posting, try to see if you can post it before the next UK general election or is that beyond you?