Community guidelines and moderation

Community guidelines

The Department of Environment and Science eHub - qld.gov.au/eHub website (“eHub") is an online space where you can have a say about issues that matter to you. Our community guidelines are designed to ensure that the eHub is an enjoyable, inspiring and safe online space for all our users. They comprise of common sense, basic courtesy and respect. When we say online community, we mean all of the places on the eHub where users hang out and can contribute to projects, and interact with each other.

We may update these guidelines from time to time and recommend that you check back once in a while.

The most effective way to share your opinion is through constructive contributions. Some things you can do to contribute to a safe and interactive community include:

• share your knowledge
• interact with other users and “like” and ”unlike” other contributions, reply and comment on others ideas and posts
• respect, and be mindful of other people, don’t swear, abuse, or write offensive things
• keep it friendly, it’s okay to have a different opinion
• don’t share private information about you or people you know online
• don’t post material that infringes the intellectual property rights of others
• stay on topic, keep your posts focused on what we are talking about
• let us know if you have a question, want more info, or if you need to report a post or person, email us at info@des.qld.gov.au.

Some things you should avoid: 

• don’t post anything illegal or inappropriate; racist, sexist, discriminatory, pornographic or violent
• don’t attack, slander or “troll” another person or encourage other people to do the same
• never reveal anything personal about yourself or people you know
• constructive criticism is okay, you can respond to an opinion but don’t be mean and insult or threaten other people
• don’t post complaints and/or defamatory or libellous comments about any person, organisation or department, their employers or representatives
• don’t promote commercial interests in your posts, and don’t post overtly political comments
• don’t post embedded content or links to advertising, illegal or offensive information.

Community moderation

All comments and ideas submitted to the eHub will be moderated before they are made public.

Comments, ideas or submissions that contain any of the following will not be published:

• anything illegal or inappropriate; racist, sexist, discriminatory, pornographic or violent
• attacking, slanderous or “trolling” another person or encouraging other people to do the same
• any personal details about yourself or people you know
• content that is considered mean, insulting or threatening to other people
• complaints and/or defamatory or libellous comments about any person, organisation or department, their employers or representatives
• content that promotes commercial interests or overtly political content
• embedded content or links to advertising, illegal or offensive information.

eHub moderators have the right to make decisions about community users who breach community guidelines by warning, temporarily suspending or deactivating community user accounts. Users who do not comply with community guidelines or community moderation may face the following:

• first time—a user will receive an email with an explanation about why their behaviour or action was inappropriate
• second time—a user will have their account suspended for seven days and will receive notification of this action via email, with an explanation about why their behaviour was inappropriate
• third time—the user will have their account permanently disabled and will receive notification of this action via email, a link to the Community Guidelines and an explanation about why their behavior was inappropriate.

Contact us

If you would like to speak to someone about the eHub you can email us at info@des.qld.gov.au.