Radio New Zealand

General information

You can make a formal complaint here: rnz.co.nz/about/formalcomplaints

Our comments policy:

Radio New Zealand (referred to in these rules as "we" or "us") wants to encourage free and frank discussion on this site. We also want this site to be a safe place for people to share their stories.

To achieve these objectives we have developed these rules that apply to anything you post. By posting you agree to abide by these rules.

Comments will be post-moderated. This means they are not checked or edited by us before they appear on the site, and consequently places the onus on you to be mature, considered, caring and reasonable in what you write.

Think before you post

This is not a place for keyboard warriors to unleash hell and fury. We want people to feel safe and respected on our community forums.

Think about your post before hitting the publish button. Ask yourself: would this offend someone? Is it defamatory? How would you react if someone else wrote the same thing?

If you are not sure your post adds to the conversation, think over what you want to say and try again later.

Treat this forum like a shared community resource – a place to spread skills, knowledge and interests through ongoing conversation.

Don’t say anything you wouldn’t say to someone’s face. Some topics need real talk, and people aren’t always going to agree. But politeness goes a long way.

Focus on the issue

Please - no personal attacks, name calling, comments about someone's parentage, hate speech, or ad-hominem attacks. This applies to authors, people featured in stories and other commenters. Stick to the issues and discuss those. It might get heated, but the first person who mentions a notorious dictator loses.

The topics discussed here matter to us and we want you to act as if they matter to you, too. Be respectful of the topics and the people discussing them, even if you disagree with some of what is being said.

Don’t plagiarise

Comments must be your own work. You can link to relevant content elsewhere, and quote other people’s work with attribution, but be mindful of copyright. Don’t copy-paste indiscriminately. You continue to own the copyright in what you write (or the original owner does), but by submitting content to us, you agree that we can use it elsewhere on the site.

Keep it polite

This is a public forum, and search engines index these discussions. Keep the language, links and images safe for family and friends. Steer clear of the top half of the BSA’s list of unacceptable words in broadcasting (PDF, strong language) and other objectionable language. Anything that could be taken as threatening, harassing, bullying, obscene, offensive, pornographic, sexist, racist, homophobic (or any other ~ist) is unacceptable.

Keep within the law

Anything that is defamatory, in breach of copyright, or in contempt of court will be removed. You will be held accountable not just by us but also the courts for violating the aforementioned – that should be a sobering thought.

Stay on topic

Conversations ramble, but try not to wedge your favourite TV show into every discussion. By the same token, don’t “feed the trolls”. If you believe someone is being deliberately offensive or off-topic, flag the comment to the moderators.

Use clear language

Good grammar is encouraged. Comments that are just “me too” or “+1” don’t add much to the conversation.

Don’t sell something

We recognise there is a fine line between discussing, and campaigning, especially when people are passionate about issues. But any comments that are obviously commercial will be deleted, likewise anything that is advertising, lobbying for, or trying to convert someone to, a particular political view, religion, product or service.

Alert us to poor behaviour

Moderators have special authority; they are responsible for this forum. But so are you. With your help, moderators can be community facilitators, not just janitors or police.

When you see bad behaviour, don’t reply. It encourages the bad behaviour by acknowledging it, consumes your energy and wastes everyone’s time. Just flag it. If enough flags accrue, action will be taken, either automatically or by a moderator.

In order to maintain our community, moderators reserve the right to remove any content and any user account for any reason at any time. Moderators do not preview new posts in any way; the moderators and site operators take no responsibility for any content posted by the community.

If you have ideas, criticism, complaints about the site or the story being discussed, or you want to report a glaring typo, email website@radionz.co.nz, or the author.

Our right to remove posts

We still reserve the right to edit or remove any comments either seen by us or flagged by the community which break these rules.