Facebook Group Moderation Rules

About our Facebook group and the Moderation Rules we play by.

Believe in Scotland is the grassroots campaign to advance the cause of Scottish independence. In our Facebook group, we discuss which tactics, messages and styles the independence movement itself should adopt and how we can help undecided voters see the opportunity. We also want to focus on what an independent Scotland might look like and how we can create a better, fairer, greener and more successful nation through independence.

We aim to provide a safe, open and positive group with adult style, intelligent communication and hope that undecided voters are comfortable that they can join, ask questions and have them answered in a welcome, informative, non-threatening way by people who believe in Scotland.

This is an open group, anyone can see who is a member and read the posts, but they have to join to comment. My advice to pro-independence members is to write as if every undecided voter in Scotland is reading your comment. Please be accepting of and interested in the other person – regardless of their responses.

Hundreds of people are joining every day and we will get mismatches; moderation is not pre-comment, it’s post-comment and so we will just have to live with occasional issues. Your moderators are not perfect and will make mistakes but always with the right intentions.

The group is pre-post moderated that means that conversation starting post you submit will be seen by the moderators before it is approved. The following rules are for the protection of the group and its members and our goal is to raise the quality of debate. Any constructive thoughts on moderation protocols for the group are welcomed.

Moderation decisions

I am sorry but the amount of moderation that is required means that we cannot explain every decision. So please do not post moderation questions or complaints they won’t reach the forum.

Group Rules

Be an Ambassador 

This is an open forum so you are an Ambassador for the independence movement. People who can’t discuss a topic without insulting and swearing are simply not helping the Yes movement.

Swearing

There is an extensive list of flagged phrases (largely swearwords) including mis-spellings; using these phrases results in the contributor being muted for two weeks, repeat offenders will be blocked. Swearing at someone without provocation or aggression/bullying will result in an immediate blocking of the poster.

Mainstream media post 

Please do not post links to unionist propaganda/fake news/fake headlined articles from newspapers such as the Express, Mail and Telegraph…. Those are clickbait and by clicking on them we trigger advertising revenue.

If you feel such an article has a point worth reading then either cut and paste the content, use Archive.is (preferred choice) or take a photo. Also please comment on why you think it is important for the group to read/discuss.

Simply posting links to hateful Express headlines and getting everyone swearing at Gordon Brown will get the thread deleted and the poster put on “needs approval to post for a month”.

Reporting trolls and protocol breaches

If you feel that someone is clearly breaking moderation protocols report them to the Admins. At the top right of any post and to the centre-right of every comment there are three dots … click and then click the option to report to Admins.

If someone is baiting you, don’t take the bait, rise above it and report it. Do NOT accuse others of being trolls – that will get you suspended.

Flaming

Don’t bait or flame other people. 90% of the reported comments involve an escalating disagreement, worsening one comment after another till both posters are accusing one another of being trolls. In this case, we will delete the conversation and mute participants for a week.

Also, don’t post negative mainstream articles that will only make people react angrily. Seeking to create outrage (flaming) doesn’t help the group and it’s often best to just ignore such articles.

Astroturfing

We only allow 1 post per day per member (comments are unlimited). We have multiple members who post multiple links without introductory comments every day to ours and other groups. It’s not uncommon for the same article or question to be posted by 5 or 6 people on the same day. We don’t allow astroturfing.

Promoting your own blog

If you have your own blog that’s great, but posting your daily blog to this group every day is not allowed. If you write something major and worth discussing, feel free to post it and ask for comments and ideas etc., but if you think every blog you write is something major and worth discussing we may decide you are a serial poster and block you.

Petitions, Polls and Crowdfunders

Don’t post petitions, polls or crowdfunders without express permission from Admin.

Leaving the group

Don’t announce that you are leaving the group – no one cares. If you post threatening to leave unless admin or other posters change their behaviours, you just left.

One trick pony posts

Posters who’s response to absolutely every question is one single policy e.g. MMT, Basic Income, in the past voting for a new list party or both votes SNP etc, will be blocked, especially those with links to your own Group’s discussion on that issue.

Discussion Hijacking
This is when comments are posted on a completely unrelated discussion to hijack the discussion.

EG: A discussion on borders controls is progressing well, people are engaging with respect for one another’s views, then someone jumps in with, “I think politician XXX (anyone from any party) is a secret unionist and is undermining independence with their views on XXX (a completely unrelated topic)”.

That’s just trolling, even if the comment wouldn’t break the rules in the right place in the Group it will be deleted under those circumstances.

Turning off comments on Zombie posts

Admin reserves the right to turn off comments on a post when they deem the discussion is long dead but its keeps coming back to life and people start biting one another.

Serial posters

Posts containing the same content without different comments to a dozen groups will be deleted from this one. If it’s worth discussing, someone will post it with analysis and start a proper conversation.

No fishing

Fishing is when someone just advertises their own group in the comments e.g. “This is interesting, we are discussing it over here at my indygroup. Come and join us.” We know it’s interesting, that is why we are discussing it here.

GIFs

You know that funny/cute gif you just posted – admins will see it 100 times in the next 24 hrs – before you post a gif stare at it for 5 minutes and then only post it if it hasn’t started to annoy you.

Lazy posting

Don’t post content, either your own, or someone else’s from other groups. If you don’t think the content is worth the effort to post properly to this group, then why should we think it’s worth the effort to read.

If the same content has already been posted several times that means you are not reading the group and repetitive posts will be deleted.

Discussion behaviour 

Please don’t use negative debating techniques – ranging from childish responses such as “don’t be so sensitive” and “you are such a baby”, to more advanced rhetorical techniques such as straw man arguments (arguing against an unpopular position that your opponent didn’t actually suggest) – and negative predictions “next you are going to say…”

Religion

We don’t do religion.

Hatred

Racial or religious hatred will be deleted, blocked and reported to Facebook. This isn’t us being woke or politically correct – just not ignorant.  This includes anti-imigration posts and calls for non Scots not to be allowed to vote in indyref2 – if you think those issues need discussing you are in the wrong group.

Unhelpful keywords 

We have an extensive list of swear words plugged into the alert system including many spellings that include *!X* symbols etc Words such as ‘yoon’ are not allowed, also not allowed is calling someone a Nazi or other unpalatable terms such as George Galloway. To be clear, this group is a George Galloway and Niel Oliver Free Zone.

Emoji

Overuse of emoji especially the ‘pile of shit’ one will be deleted.

Peaceful evolution, not a revolution

Suggestions that people should break the law /organise illegal protests or overuse of warfare related terms in posts will be deleted.

Provide evidence

If you are debating something with another member don’t just insist that you are right – provide evidence. A link to a source that you would trust or a report/press release etc. will usually prove a point – don’t just assume. This is especially important if you use the word fact anywhere in your post, especially in capital letters – FACT.

Please be sure of your facts – memes, gifs and posts that are inaccurate will be deleted; please note that almost all economic and financial memes on Facebook that don’t originate from Business for Scotland are inaccurate.

Thanks for reading and for playing by the rules.

Please join our group here.