Moderation Policy

Moderation Policy


Why have moderation?


The intention of moderation is not to censor free speech. If our forum were unmoderated then it would soon be filled with commercial postings placed by companies, would contain racist and sexist material, links to pornography, slander and personal fights between users and other offensive material. This isn't what most people would expect from a forum so moderation is needed. With that said however, it is not our policy to generally remove critical posts - it should be possible to have sensible debate.


However, it must be borne in mind that this forum is hosted by Screwfix. As a commercial entity we are subject to restrictions which may not be a consideration on other, independently hosted forums. As such, we reserve the right to edit or remove postings without warning or explanation, although we do try to avoid this as far as possible.


If you would like to read our guidelines on what we consider to be acceptable content and conduct, they can be found here.


Commercial posts


A common problem is people using the forum to promote or gather users for their own website, or posting commercial messages about their business or organisation. The forum is not the place to promote your company, product or website. Misleading or deceptive posts, where a poster from a company or PR firm pretends to be a member of the public will lead to a permanent ban. If you register on the site and your first post is linking to a company, business or similar organisation then you will be treated with suspicion.


Posts which link to competitor websites, or external sites such as Youtube will be permitted, provided that these are relevant to the thread topic. The decision of the Moderator will be final in determining whether links are relevant.


Please avoid:


· Swearing, racist, sexist, abusive, crude or politically offensive language or images. Please keep your language civil – this principle extends to modifying the spelling of profanity to avoid filters, and will be treated in exactly the same manner. Please see the full guidelines here.

· Posting bad or spam links. Do not add links to any racist, sexist or any other offensive (politically or otherwise) sites or pornographic websites - this will result in an immediate permanent ban.

· Personal insults or abuse of other posters. Disagreeing with someone's point of view or about issues is fine - enjoy the debate. What we will not tolerate is lacing your argument with personal insults or trading abuse.

· Using multiple identities on the site; this is a tactic often used by trolls to try to create conflict.

· Arguments or disagreements with other users should not be carried over into other threads or posts.

· When reading posts, try not to jump to conclusions and assume that offence is intended. An inherent problem with communicating on the internet is that facial expressions and tone of voice are absent, so it can be easy to assume that a comment which was intended as banter was a direct provocation - potentially leading to retaliation. Try to assume the best interpretation of a comment; the alternative would be to ban humour and banter, which wouldn't make contributing very enjoyable.

· Decisions made by the Moderator are final. If you wish to complain about the way a thread has been moderated, please contact us directly using the email address social@screwfix.com . Do not post your complaint on the forum or attempt to gather support, as such posts will be immediately removed. Try to remember that you may not know what a user has been up to behind the scenes with additional accounts or messages.


How to report a post


If you read a post you feel breaks any of these guidelines, do report it using the ‘Report Abuse’ mark button at the foot of each post - this way all the moderators will be able to see your report.