Haddenham.net is the community website for the village of Haddenham in Buckinghamshire UK, with direct links to two social media platforms: Facebook and Twitter.
Administration & Moderation Policy
for the Haddenham.net Community Facebook page
The Haddenham.net (HdN) Facebook page is a completely independent community-based platform, run by a team of local volunteers, primarily focused on providing helpful news & information.
The page has the following primary aims:
- To disseminate news and information relating to activities of interest to residents of Haddenham and its very close neighbouring villages
- To complement the Haddenham.net community website by highlighting and pointing to longer reports or news items that are too detailed to be published on Facebook (this policy statement being a good example)
- To provide a forum for the sharing of ideas and views, in a mutually respectful style, about the village of Haddenham
- To offer a communication channel for residents to seek recommendations of good local service providers, on the basis of direct personal experience of fellow residents
- To provide a platform for the loss of pets and personal items to be communicated in the hope of re-uniting them with their owners
- To assist those who are relatively new to the village (or thinking of moving here) to seek helpful information and practical help
What the HdN Facebook page is NOT:
- It is not a platform on which to criticise individual officers or leaders of local organisations or to 'bad mouth' local businesses. If you wish to do so, please write direct to those you wish to criticise.
Commercial Posts
Small local businesses, pubs, cafés and local residents are welcome to post commercial items, news or promotional events but not more frequently than once per week please.
Membership
Posting on the Haddenham.net Facebook page is only available to members of the page. Those wishing to 'join' the page will need to be:
1) Haddenham residents;
2) close relatives of those living here;
3) former residents who continue to maintain close and supportive links with the village;
4) those currently working in Haddenham or having close links with the village.
Moderators will also 'join' those applicants who reside in very close neighbouring villages.
Moderators will close down membership to former residents who seek to post critical comments of their former home village or any of its organisations.
The Role of Admin Team
The Admin Team act as moderators of the HdN Facebook page, under the guidance of an Advisory Group.
The current Advisory Group (November 2023) includes:
* Dianne Brackley
* Gill Harvey
* Helen Lewis
* Kevin Johnson
* Kevin Nunn
* Tim Shaw
* Michael Talbot
* Kirsty Towersey
* Emily Hearn
The latest posting guidelines were crafted by the Advisory Group in October 2023 and published on 1st November 2023. Please see a summary of the primary changes by clicking on the PDF attached to this webpage.
The moderators act under the guidance of the Advisory Group. They are volunteers, and maintain a part-time 'watching brief' to ensure that all initiating posts (new threads) are suitable for publication, according to the criteria outlined in this document. Sometimes this involves careful judgment calls and this responsibility is taken very seriously.
Posting Guidelines:
1. This page is for news and events local to our part of Buckinghamshire and close areas in southern Oxfordshire
2. Commercial advertising from local businesses will be published – but no repeats within seven days, please
3. Not more than ten images per post
4. No political or national level posts – local matters only
5. Photo evidence of anti-social behaviour (e.g., bad parking) should not identify specific individuals, registrations, or other unique criteria
6. Complaints about local services should be made direct to the service providers, rather than posted on the HdN Facebook page
7. Unless there is a clear reason, posts of lost and found pets should relate to Haddenham and its very close neighbouring villages only
8. Posts or comments with potentially libellous of defamatory content will be deleted – please be respectful to those with differing opinions. Moderators will also block content that is profane, obscene, defamatory, racist, sexist or seditious
Limits to Moderator Inputs
It is not practicable or feasible for the team of moderators to monitor all secondary postings (i.e., comments in response to initiating threads) in real time – to do so would require them to be permanently fixated on their PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphones. They have lives to lead like everyone else!
There is a formal 'reporting' system if a secondary post appears that might be considered by some to be unacceptable – all such reports are considered by the moderators (see below).
The team of moderators does not want to behave as censors. Although the Team members may not personally agree with some postings, we would like to maintain a platform for free speech as far as is reasonably possible. However, there are limits (see below). In practice, very few postings are blocked, but moderators will occasionally intervene when the posting guidelines have been ignored. And we have to act quickly if a post contravenes top level guidelines imposed by 'Meta' (the Facebook parent company) otherwise the whole HdNFacebook page can be taken down.
Reporting 'Unacceptable' Posts
On some (thankfully rare) occasions, posts appear that do not maintain a level of civility that the vast majority of users seek. There are also some "wind-up merchants" who delight in generating a potentially disproportionate response from others. Unfortunately, not everyone spots this kind of input, and so the blue touch paper can be lit!
We would encourage any member of the Haddenham.net Facebook page to report potentially unacceptable posts through the formal reporting channel provided on the Facebook platform. This includes the use of foul language. The moderators will review the reported post and assess its appropriateness against the criteria outlined in this document.
What do we mean by 'inappropriate'?
Here are some guidelines:
- Sexually explicit, spiteful, discriminatory or other vulgar, foul or inflammatory language
- Comments that harass, threaten, abuse, bully or criticise others in a personal manner
- Personal attacks on any FB contributor or moderator
- Personalised criticisms of individuals who are acting in an official capacity on behalf of village organisations
- Party political viewpoints
- Snide, vitriolic, malicious, mocking or overtly sarcastic comments that seek to denigrate others
- Comments expressed in aggressive language that is disrespectful of those who hold different opinions
- 'Bad mouthing' local businesses
As mentioned above, the moderator team members are all volunteers. They have to make judgement calls when posts are potentially inconsistent with the criteria outlined in this document.
On rare occasions, those looking to post unacceptable items on the Haddenham.net Facebook page will be 'muted' for a short period – typically a few days. On even rarer occasions those causing moderators to expend a disproportionate amount of their time and attention examining potentially unacceptable posts will be blocked from using the platform. This action will always be one of 'last resort'.
Moderators will also consider blocking from the Haddenham.net Facebook page anyone who repeatedly uses other local social media platforms to criticise or bully individual moderators of this page – this is particularly offensive when those alternative social media sites knowingly block any right of reply.
If you wish to comment on this policy document, please feel free to email the moderator team via: