User Guidelines
Reply and responding to messages
The discussion area within Consul is a space where registered users – partners, individuals, community groups etc. – can meet, discuss and share what they consider to be important about the conversation theme. We aim to respond to as many comments where a response is required or would add benefit. This isn’t always possible, and we can sometimes miss posts, particularly when there is heavy traffic. We will sometimes need to forward your questions to other colleagues to get the information you require. This means that we may not be able to provide an answer right away, but we will endeavour to get back to you as soon as we can. It should be noted that we do not monitor the platform 24/7. If your query is urgent, serious or involves personal details, please use Contact Us where you will also find links to our Complaints and Feedback pages.
Age restriction
To participate in this online discussion you must be 16 years or older as of 1st March 2019.
Moderation
Where possible, we will rely on the measure of protection and intervention which the platform already has in place (e.g. against illegal, harmful or offensive content), for example by flagging comments or alerting them to breaches of the site’s terms and conditions. We also have some of our own rules. We reserve the right to remove any contributions that break the rules of the platform, or any of the following guidelines:
1. Don’t post messages that are unlawful, defamatory or libellous, abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane,
sexually oriented, racially offensive or discriminatory.
2. Don’t bully, harass or intimidate any individual or organisation.
3. Don’t impersonate someone else.
4. Don’t swear.
5. Be civil, tasteful and relevant.
6. Don’t post content copied from elsewhere, which you don’t own the copyright for.
7. Don’t post the same message, or very similar messages, repeatedly (also called 'spamming').
8. Don’t publicise your, or anyone else’s, personal information.
9. Don’t advertise products or services.
10. Don’t post political comments.
Defamatory comments
Please take care not to make defamatory statements when posting on our pages. By publishing such a statement we can both get into serious trouble. We will therefore take down any statement that we consider could be deemed to be defamatory.
Personal information
We encourage you not to share private or sensitive information on this platform. This is because other people will be able to see this information. If you want to share personal information with us, please use Contact Us to find out the most appropriate way to get in touch.
Blocking
If we block your account, this will probably be because you’ve contravened the rules (above) or that you’ve joined purely to promote a product or service.
Sharing
We try to share information that we think will be of interest or use to Aberdeen citizens and businesses. However please don’t be offended if we don’t share something you ask us to – it’s important that we remain impartial at all times.
Posts of a political nature
The council must remain politically neutral at all times and we will, therefore, not mention, like or share any local / national politicians or people aligned to political parties. This is because the council is barred from either producing political publicity or assisting others to do so.