Moderation Policy

What is moderation?

‘Moderation’ is the practice of:

• facilitating online consultations to ensure that everyone can take part in discussion, get their views across and that the consultation meets its objectives;
• maintaining the flow of the discussion by checking all posts in relation to the terms and conditions of the site.

What does a moderator do?

‘Moderator’ is internet jargon for somebody who is responsible for making sure that the forum discussion rules are respected.

A moderator is:

• Similar to a chair of a face-to-face meeting;
• There to encourage debate by asking questions but will not offer opinions;
• There to make sure everyone feels comfortable and equal in the online discussion.

Why Hansard Society moderates the forum?

The Hansard Society is an independent, non-partisan charity promoting political awareness and participation. The Society has been developing

and evaluating online consultations for nearly a decade, and is recognised for providing moderation of interaction between citizens, elected representatives and political institutions online.

The Hansard Society moderators always aim to be fair, objective and independent. Moderators are concerned with the quality of the discussion not the interests of one individual, group or idea over another.

Direct communication between the participants and the moderators can take place via email. The moderators’ email address is edemocracy@hansard.lse.ac.uk.

Who are the moderators?

The moderators of this forum are staff at the Hansard Society. All have had extensive training and experience of moderating a wide variety of online consultations. They are coordinated by Ross Ferguson, Director of the eDemocracy Programme.

Find out more about the work of the e-Democracy programme by visiting www.hansardsociety.org.uk/programmes/edemocracy.

What form of moderation will be used in this forum?

There are two types of moderation available:

• Pre-moderation… where all posts are checked against the terms and conditions before they are published;
• Post-moderation… where all participant posts are checked against the terms and conditions after they are published.

This forum will employ a pre-moderation strategy. This means that posts will not go live instantly; they will first be checked by the moderators. Moderators will be monitoring the site between 9 – 6 Monday – Friday.

During the week all posts will go live within 24 hours of submission. Posts made during the weekend will go live on the following Monday.

Forum spaces are readable at all times and you can submit a post at any time.

Will the ODPM policy teams be participating?

Within the framework of the ‘Digital Dialogues’ pilot, relevant policy team representatives intend to regularly visit the forum discussions and where appropriate submit posts to encourage discussion.