Community rules and personal information

Community rule 3 states "do not include personal information or ask others for personal information in messages. This can include names, addresses, emails or phone numbers"

I think this needs clarification. Sometimes towns and cities are deleted by the Moderators.

I can understand that giving your actual address down to a locality whereby you could be identified is inadvisable. But sometimes it is necessary to name your county or town to explain things.

For example someone lives in a town and wants to know what services are available. Editing out the town makes a mockery of the request.

Or someone recently who had moved from a named town to a very small village and their post was about the difficulties of one compared to the other. The village might be too specific an address, but naming the town where they used to live????  The text is now punctuated by having every geographical reference edited out - so the posting makes no sense.

If it is really necessary to exclude names of towns, counties etc SAY SO PLEASE in Rule 3, but don't please cite the rules as a reason for exclusions no-one could reasonably anticipate.

Similarly the advice recently meted out to someone about profile names is not clearly stated in the rules.

Parents
  • Hi Longman,

    Firstly I hardly think even new members would interpret the moderators intervention as a "public reprimand". The moderator went out of their way to reassure the member, including the phrase "Please don't worry, you've done nothing wrong at all, I'm just trying to make sure that your privacy is protected (smiley)"

    The member also did not seem to react as though being told off. “thank you so much, and sorry for breaking the rules I confess to not having read them before posting”

    If done politely and with an explanation these interventions are commonly used on all forums. We only email when we feel a private conversation is called for or a reprimand.

    The safety and privacy of members is a high priority and drawing the attention of a user to this, including the removal of possibly identifying text is a legitimate action and within our rules. In this case the content of the username along with geographic locations heightened this risk of identification.

    I realise there are shortcomings in the technology we use. This is something we are hoping to address this year.

    As ever I appreciate your commitment to the community and welcome your comments even if we do not always agree.

    Best Regards Bob - Digital Services Manager

Reply
  • Hi Longman,

    Firstly I hardly think even new members would interpret the moderators intervention as a "public reprimand". The moderator went out of their way to reassure the member, including the phrase "Please don't worry, you've done nothing wrong at all, I'm just trying to make sure that your privacy is protected (smiley)"

    The member also did not seem to react as though being told off. “thank you so much, and sorry for breaking the rules I confess to not having read them before posting”

    If done politely and with an explanation these interventions are commonly used on all forums. We only email when we feel a private conversation is called for or a reprimand.

    The safety and privacy of members is a high priority and drawing the attention of a user to this, including the removal of possibly identifying text is a legitimate action and within our rules. In this case the content of the username along with geographic locations heightened this risk of identification.

    I realise there are shortcomings in the technology we use. This is something we are hoping to address this year.

    As ever I appreciate your commitment to the community and welcome your comments even if we do not always agree.

    Best Regards Bob - Digital Services Manager

Children
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