We thought it would be useful to explain what you can expect when you decide to contribute to the WHYS blog. We always endeavour to stick to this and if we don’t, you have every right to pick us up. If you have any more questions, please email me.
WHAT WE CONSIDER WHEN MODERATING A COMMENT
– is the comment relevant to the discussion on the page where it’s posted?
– does it show respect for the other people posting on the page? This is a post our Editor Mark wrote about blog courtesy.
– is it a short and engaged contribution to a discussion? Here’s a passionate debate we’ve all had on this subject.
If the answer to those three questions is yes, your comment is likely to published.
WHY ARE WE SO STRICT ON THE LENGTH OF A COMMENT?
When we talk to each other in day-to-day life, we don’t take turns to speak for five minutes and the same needs to apply on our blog and our show. We’ve stopped short of setting a word limit, but the box where you write the comment isn’t a bad guideline.
The reason we don’t set a limit is that sometimes, such as with personal stories relevant to a debate, you may need to write more.
What we won’t publish are comments that would work better on the op-ed pages of a newspaper than on a blog.
WHEN ARE THE COMMENTS MODERATED AND WHO DOES IT?
There are around 30 BBC moderators. Any of those people can be moderating at any time, so almost always your comment will be moderated very quickly after it’s posted. Now and then at weekends and at night (UK time) it may take us a little longer. We did have moderators from the WHYS community – see the editor Mark’s post about why that experiment was stopped.
BBC EDITORIAL GUIDELINES
Like everyone at BBC News we stick to the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines. They’ll help you understand why we do what we do.
THANKS
Last but not least, it’s worth saying that we are very grateful to everyone who chooses to contribute to WHYS.
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