Community Guidelines
The following guidelines are designed to help you enjoy participation in the National Theatre's community.
When submitting content to any National Theatre site you are bound by the site terms and conditions. Please read our Terms and Conditions upon which all submissions are made.
About the Guidelines
We’ve created these guidelines for your reference, so you can enjoy our community and get the most out of your engagement with it.
If you post a comment on www.nationaltheatre.org.uk it must comply with these guidelines. If you’re unclear about any of them, ask us a question at blogtalk@nationaltheatre.org.uk.
These guidelines are subject to review, so do check them out regularly if you become a frequent contributor.
Registration
You have to register to post a message. You will be prompted to sign-up at the foot of each blog. Please follow the onscreen instructions to complete your registration.
What is Moderation and how do we do it?
We moderate all community areas on www.nationaltheatre.org.uk on a post-moderated basis. This means one of the moderation team will review your comment after your comment is published. If they find something that breaks the Community Guidelines, your comment(s) will be removed.
National Theatre Moderators will always disclose their role as a moderator for the National when they contribute to a community area.
The Guidelines
Please be aware that the National Theatre has the right to remove any comment that it feels necessary to maintain a pleasant and constructive community tone. If you think you have been banned, contact blogtalk@nationaltheatre.org.uk. Do not register a new name as that will increase any ban.
The following rules are applicable across all National Theatre websites.
You should:
Post relevant comments: Make sure your comment is relevant to the content. Off-topic comments will be removed, unless a blog is designated as a general one. Also, take time to compose your comment, as it is quite easy to be misunderstood as tone of voice doesn’t often come across in words on a screen.
Enjoy the experience: This should be fun. If you find yourself getting wound up or stressed take a break for a bit and return when you feel more relaxed and ready to engage once more.
Be understanding of other users: Even if someone posts in a way that annoys you (in txt spk for example), stay polite and light-hearted in any response. There are a range of communication styles and provided they don’t break the guidelines, they should all be given their space.
Make sure you don’t do any of the following, as breaking these rules may result in your suspension:
Don’t: Make personal attacks on people (actors, directors, writers, other users or any individual): singling out named individuals for negative criticism makes for unhelpful conversations.
Don’t: Behave offensively: Don’t post in a manner likely to offend users, disrupt the community, or spoil users’ enjoyment of these blogs.
Don’t: Get into arguments: Don’t get into personal arguments with other users. We do not allow the abuse of other commenters. If another user is attempting to get into an argument with you please do not rise to the bait. Contact us at blogtalk@nationaltheatre.org.uk rather than involve yourself in personal attacks.
Don’t: Use bad language: No swearing of any kind is allowed on National Theatre blogs (even with ***s!).
Don’t: Steal: Don’t copy and paste large blocks of text from other sites or include copyrighted material in your post.
Don’t: Break confidentiality agreements: Be aware that copying an email that has been sent to you by either an individual or a company may break the confidentially terms between you and the sender, which can be found in the footer of the email. These posts will be removed.
Don’t: Create a virus risk: Don’t link to any kind of media or executable file directly. If you suspect someone has attempted to post one, DO NOT open it. Please note the National Theatre is not responsible for third party sites.
Don’t: Do anything illegal: Do not include anything that is obscene, indecent, harassing, threatening or offensive or that promotes cruelty, violence, vandalism, fraudulent or criminal acts or anything that could encourage others to commit illegal acts or acts that could cause physical harm if replicated.
Don’t: Spam: Don’t try to promote your website, business, or any other scheme.
Don’t: Repeatedly repost comments: Do not repeatedly re-post deleted topics or comments.
Don’t: Post comments in a foreign language: Messages may be removed if posted in languages other than English as we cannot confirm that they keep to our guidelines.
Don’t: Add the following type of links in your comments:
- Commercially motivated links
- A link to content that breaches copyright
- A direct link to a media or executable file, e.g. wmv, mp4, mov, mp3, pdf
- A link to obscene or unlawful content
- Links considered spam or off-topic
Otherwise, you can link to any website to illustrate your comment.
And for your own personal safety:
Don’t: Disclose personal information: Don’t give out any personal information about yourself or another person, especially contact information. You may think you know the people you are chatting to, but you do not know the many thousands of casual guests who can read what you post.
Please note the National Theatre is not responsible for the content of 3rd party sites.
Contact blogtalk@nationaltheatre.org.uk if you have any questions or problems using the blogs on the National’s websites. Bear with us as it can take time to reply to all the emails we receive.
We are indebted to Channel 4 for the tone and many of the points of these Community Guidelines.
