Scope
This document covers all aspects of comments and moderation on theguardian.com.
Moderation aims
The Guardian website provides opportunities for readers who wish to discuss the content we publish, or debate issues more generally. Our aim is to ensure this platform is inclusive and safe, with clear boundaries of engagement for all participants, and that the Guardian website is a place where you will find interesting, entertaining, and above all, intelligent discussions.
Community standards
There are 10 simple guidelines which we expect all participants BTL (below the line) of the Guardian website to abide by, all of which directly inform our approach to moderation. Moderation decisions are also informed by the context in which comments are made. Our aim is to maintain boundaries without stifling debate.
1. Be aware that you may be misunderstood. Try to be clear about what you are saying, and expect that people may understand your contribution differently than you intended. Remember that text isn’t always a great medium for conversation: tone of voice (sarcasm, humour and so on) doesn’t always come across when using words on a screen. You can help to keep the Guardian community areas open to all viewpoints by maintaining a reasonable tone, even in unreasonable circumstances.
2. The platform is ours, but the conversation belongs to everybody. We want this to be a welcoming space for intelligent discussion, and we expect participants to help us achieve this by notifying us of potential problems and helping each other to keep conversations inviting and appropriate. If you spot something problematic below the line please report it. When we all take responsibility for maintaining an appropriate and constructive environment, the debate itself is improved and everyone benefits.
3. Keep it relevant and engage with the topic. Some conversations can be wide-ranging, but if you post something below the line which is unrelated to the original topic (“off-topic”) or not mentioned above the line (ATL) then it may be removed, in order to keep the thread on track. Comments which are dismissive of the topic at hand may also be removed. This also applies to queries or comments about moderation, which should not be posted as comments.
4. We welcome debate and dissent, but personal insults (against authors or other users), ad hominem attacks, persistent trolling and abuse will not be tolerated. The key to maintaining the Guardian website as an inviting space is to focus on informed discussion of topics.
5. We acknowledge criticism of the articles we publish, but will not allow misrepresentation of the Guardian and our journalists to be published on our website. For the sake of robust debate, we will distinguish between constructive criticism and misrepresentation.
6. We will not tolerate racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, or other forms of hate speech, or contributions that could be interpreted as such. We recognise the difference between criticising a particular government, organisation, community or belief and targeting people on the basis of their race, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability or age.
7. We understand that people often feel strongly about issues debated on the site, but we will consider removing any comments that others might find offensive or threatening. Please respect other people’s views and beliefs and consider your impact on others when making your contribution.
8. We reserve the right to redirect or curtail conversations which descend into “flame-wars”. We don’t want to stop people discussing topics on which they have strong opinions, but we do ask users to find ways of sharing their views that do not feel divisive, threatening or toxic to others. We may remove threads of discussion which degenerate into bickering.
9. We will remove any content that may put us in legal jeopardy. This includes potentially libellous or defamatory postings, contempt, or material posted in potential breach of copyright.
10. We will remove any posts that are obviously commercial, self-promoting or otherwise spam-like. This site provides a space for people to interact with our content and each other, and we actively discourage commercial entities passing themselves off as individuals, in order to post advertising material or links. This may also apply to users who frequently post propaganda or external links without adding substantively to the quality of the discussion on the Guardian website.
In short:
- If you act with maturity and consideration for other users, you should have no problems.
- Don’t be unpleasant. Demonstrate and share the insight, wisdom and humour we know you possess.
- Take some responsibility for the quality of the conversations in which you’re participating. Help make this an intelligent place for discussion and it will be.
Community FAQ
There is a comprehensive list of frequently asked questions about participation and community moderation, which also provides more detail about particular examples of the standards listed above.
theguardian.com/community-faqs
Moderation approach
Participants who seriously, persistently or wilfully ignore the community standards, participation guidelines or terms and conditions will have their posting privileges for all the Guardian community areas withdrawn.
This is not an action that we take lightly or arbitrarily. However, we want to maintain an online experience consistent with Guardian values, and we reserve the right to make decisions which we believe support that. If you have questions you may contact the moderation team on the email address supplied below. Any advice they give/request they make should be adhered to, as our moderators are employed to apply these community standards and create a constructive environment for everyone who contributes to our site.
We will, when necessary, remove comments below the line.
If a contribution to a discussion on the Guardian website is perceived as breaching the community standards set out above, then it will be removed by the moderation team, in the interests of keeping community areas of the site safe and inviting to all.
(*NB: We cannot edit user comments to change the meaning, spelling, or anything else intended by the user. Even if only part of a comment or posting is perceived as breaching the community guidelines, the whole thing may be removed. When a comment or post is removed for any of the reasons above, replies will automatically be removed and any subsequent comments which refer to explicitly or quote from the original (removed) comment, may also be removed.)
We reserve the right to take steps or implement measures which we hope will benefit the whole community of the Guardian community participants.
Because we are ultimately responsible for everything which appears on this site, all actions and decisions taken by our moderators are final. If you have suggestions or questions about any aspect of community participation on the Guardian website, you can write to moderation@theguardian.com
Please mark all queries clearly in the subject line (e.g. Question about moderation decision on Opinion article)
For queries about your user account, you should contact userhelp@theguardian.com
Note about community content
The views expressed in community areas of this site do not necessarily reflect or represent the views of GNM, its staff or contributors.
About this document
This policy is a collaborative document, created by representatives of GNM editorial including the Head of Communities, moderators and editors, together with the Readers Editor and incorporating feedback from users and content creators across the site.
It has evolved over many years of community participation on the Guardian website, and aims to reflect best practice in community management as well as GNM’s editorial values.
Further information and resources
There is an extensive list of frequently asked questions (FAQs) about community participation which we hope will answer any questions you have about interaction functionality and moderation process.
Additional questions can be sent to moderation@theguardian.com.
Please remember that by registering for the Guardian website you have also agreed to our terms of service.
