Have Your Say - Frequently Asked Questions - NSW Strategic ...

Have Your Say - Frequently Asked Questions
Set-up
1. How long does it take to set up an online consultation?
2. Can I choose a URL for my pages?
3. How long can I run a consultation for?
4. What features can be included in an online consultation?
5. Can I run more than one discussion at a time?
6. Who do I contact for further information?
7. How much does it cost?
Content
1. Can I upload content myself?
2. In what formats can content be uploaded?
3. Can I update content once the pages are published?
4. Why should I keep my introduction short?
Moderation
1. How do I organise moderation?
2. How does moderation work?
3. Why would content be removed?
4. Can we moderate comments before they go live in a discussion forum?
5. Can comments be edited rather than removed completely?
6. How much does moderation cost?
Management
1. How can I promote my online consultation?
2. Is the forum accessible to those with a visual disability?
3. What are the site conditions of use?
4. Is my online consultation secure?
5. How do I stop someone having more than one username in a discussion forum?
6. What is the decommissioning process?
General
1. What is Have Your Say?
2. Who are Bang the Table?
3. Why do I liaise with Strategic Communications rather than directly with Bang the
Table?

Set-up
1. How long does it take to set up an online
consultation?
Please allow at least two weeks to create an online
consultation. This includes time for approval of costs and
requirements, technical set-up, content uploading and
approvals. More time should be taken into consideration
for consultation planning, including approval of content
and a promotional strategy.
2. Can I choose a URL for my pages?
Each page URL must follow this format: haveyoursay.nsw.
gov.au/yourconsultationname. You can only personalise
the last part of a URL with your consultation name; so
ensure this is short and easy to remember.
3. How long can I run a consultation for?
It is recommended that you run a discussion forum for
between 4-6 weeks. These dates should be advertised on
the consultation pages to give the public enough time to
think about the project, add their comments and possibly
engage with other visitors to the pages. If you want to
extend the process at the end of that period then you can
do so – this is good news that can be passed on to the
community using your site or by email. If you feel at that
stage that you have fulfilled the needs of your project
you can close the site. For long-term projects consider
staging discussion forums at different periods during the
life of your consultation.
4. What features can be included in an online
consultation?
There are lots of ways you can engage your community
and keep them interested in the consultation. You can
post videos, SlideShare presentations, pictures, maps
and upload extra documents. You can advise them of
key upcoming dates, run a news feed, online polls and
questionnaires and provide the opportunity to link your
consultation to their own personal social media pages
(this will help publicise your project). You can also
include FAQs, link to external websites and accept formal
submissions. Please refer to the Feature Set-up Guide for
more details.
7. How much does it cost?
Please contact the Strategic Communications team
to discuss your project and get a quote.
Content
1. Can I upload content myself?
Yes, login details will be provided to a nominated editor
from your team. Following a short half-hour introduction
to the Content Management System, this person will be
able to upload and edit all content on the site. When you
are ready to launch your page will need to notify the
Strategic Communications team who will publish your page.
2. In what formats can content be uploaded?
Uploaded documents can be in Word or PDF format.
Images must be in jpeg format and no larger than 300KB;
you can upload video in most mainstream formats. The
time limit for videos is five minutes, but we recommend
you keep it under three minutes to retain your audience’s
attention. It is also not recommended to use hi-resolution
video as many internet users’ networks may not be fast
enough to download large videos.
3. Can I update content once the pages are published?
Yes, you will be able to change certain areas of the
pages, i.e. intro copy, news, pictures, key dates, videos
and documents etc. However, we recommend you don’t
change any questions that have already started receiving
feedback from the public.
4. Why should I keep my introduction short?
Writing for an online audience is different to many other
mediums. Users tend to scan pages and don’t want
to spend time scrolling to find the information they
want. You will lose their attention if the copy is too long
and overly technical or complicated. It is best to keep
descriptions simple, clear and to the point.
Back to Table of Contents
5. Can I run more than one discussion at the same
time?
Yes, by launching all discussion forums from a project
hub page you can run as many as you like concurrently.
However, it is recommended you limit the number of
discussion forums running at the same time in order to
keep visitors focused and maximise participation.
6. Who do I contact for further information?
The Strategic Communications team, Department of
Premier & Cabinet.
Email: haveyoursay@dpc.nsw.gov.au
Phone: 02 9228 4924
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Moderation
1. How do I organise moderation?
Moderation is mandatory for any online discussion and
is undertaken by Bang the Table (BTT). It automatically
begins when you publish a discussion forum. For more
information about BTT, please refer to section: General
2. How does moderation work?
BTT moderators read every single comment that is made
on one of the discussion forums, 24/7. They will generally
see a comment within one hour of it being posted. They
have a team of moderators in Perth, Vancouver and the
UK that help them cover activity at any time of the day.
3. Why would content be removed?
BTT have noticed that the vast majority of users are
very constructive in their comments and most do not
require any moderation. The comments they remove
generally fall into one of three categories; 1) duplicates,
2) disrespectful or bullying, and 3) mild bad language.
BTT have never had to remove any comments that could
be considered “high impact” and they believe that this
is because community users are aware that the site is
being independently and consistently monitored and
moderated.
When a comment is removed from a discussion forum
it is replaced with a statement from the moderator
explaining the rationale for the removal of the comment.
The user is automatically notified by email about the
removal of their comment and the rationale for its
removal. They are invited to contact the moderator
directly to challenge the decision.
4. Can we moderate comments before they go live in a
discussion forum?
No, because:
a. It can be incredibly frustrating for community
members not to see their comments go live in
realtime. The service proposition is therefore much
stronger using post-comment moderation. It can take
a lot of effort for some people to leave comments
and if they don’t appear it can be a negative
experience for them. They are unlikely to return as a
result.
b. If the comments are “pre-moderated”, discussion
forums would simply appear as a list of comments
with little or no opportunity for interaction between
the participants. This is what the Guestbook feature
is for.
c. Awareness that the site is independently and
constantly moderated maintains a reasonable level of
behaviour among the vast majority of users.
5. Can comments be edited rather than removed
completely?
A comment will never be edited to remove controversial
content. This may be seen as interfering with the
community’s views and censoring public opinion. This
kind of moderation could also change the tone and
meaning of a comment.
6. How much does moderation cost?
Please contact the Strategic Communications team
for a quote.
Email: haveyoursay@dpc.nsw.gov.au
Phone: 02 9228 4924
For more information on moderation rules go to our
Appendix.
Management
1. How can I promote my online consultation?
This needs to be considered well before the launch of
your online consultation, and should be part of a larger
community engagement action plan. Please see
A Guide to Planning and Promotion for more details.
2. Is the site accessible to those with a visual
disability?
Yes, the BTT site framework received an AA rating
against the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
1.0. The site has been audited by Vision Australia
and adopted their recommendations. Please visit
http://haveyoursay.nsw.gov.au/accessibility for more
information.
3. What are the site conditions of use?
The conditions of use have been created by Bang the
Table and cover all their online discussion forums. Visit:
http://haveyoursay.nsw.gov.au/terms for more details.
4. Is my online consultation secure?
There is a high level of security on this site as it is
constantly monitored. If inappropriate use or spamming
happens, it will be picked up within an hour.
During development, content is password protected and
all information is backed up regularly.
Back to Table of Contents
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5. How do I stop someone having more than one
username on the forum?
All new users have to agree to the site terms and
conditions, which specify that they can’t have more than
one account or purport to represent someone else. In
these instances, BTT will contact the account holder
directly and, if necessary, block access to the site. BTT
use a number of techniques to identify multiple logins
and though there is no foolproof way of preventing them
from occurring, those who try and cheat are usually
pretty easy to spot.
It’s important to consider how you interpret results. If four
people say one thing and five say another, you are not
going to necessarily go with the majority. These discussion
forums allow everyone to have a say. If you interpret
the results in that way it really doesn’t matter if someone
manages to say the same thing under two usernames.
a broad variety of communities. For further information
visit Bang the Table.
3. Why do I manage my forum through Strategic
Communications rather than directly with Bang the
Table?
The NSW Government has a central contract with Bang
the Table, allowing all agencies fast and cost effective
access to online consultation services under the Have
Your Say URL. The Strategic Communications team
manages the NSW Government Have Your Say service
and are available to provide advice, information and
guidance with setting up a new online consultation.
Back to Table of Contents
6. What is the decommissioning process?
Once you decide to close your consultation you need to
inform the Strategic Communications team. They will
archive your discussion forum, which removes the
function to add comments, replies or the abilityto
agree or disagree. It is important for transparency
reasons to leave each forum page live for some time
after discussion has closed, so the community knows
their comments haven’t just disappeared or been erased.
However, if you need to, you can unpublish your pages.
Your online consultation pages can remain live and
accessible to the public for a period of up to one year.
Your consultation plan should include how long you
require the pages to remain published and also include
how you plan to follow-up with your community on the
results of the consultation and the outcomes.
General
1. What is Have Your Say?
Have Your Say is a NSW Government online consultation
platform through which members of the public can share
their views on Government plans to improve services,
the economy and infrastructure in NSW. Through Have
Your Say, all NSW Government departments can seek
community opinion on a variety of projects through
discussion forums, polls, surveys and formal submissions.
All online consultations can be accessed from the Have
Your Say homepage on the NSW Government website,
www.nsw.gov.au/haveyoursay.
2. Who are Bang the Table?
Bang the Table was established in 2007 and is one of the
most experienced suppliers of web-based community
consultation services in Australasia. The company offers
an online avenue to engage in collaborative learning,
discussion, and debate. The platform they use is called
Engagement HQ; it is designed to effectively engage with
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Appendix
Moderation definitions and tips
1. Automated moderation is when software does the
job for you. It’s limited to checking comments for
bad language and can help identify spam.
2. Pre-moderation is when each comment is read
before it goes live to the site. It’s represents poor
community engagement practice and can imply a
lack of trust.
3. Post-moderation is when each comment is read
after it goes live to the site.
4. Community moderation is when the community
nominates the comments that they feel should
not be on the site. The final call still lies with the
moderator on whether it should or should not be
removed.
5. Independent, third party moderation is the best
way to remove suggestions of bias or censorship
in your moderation.
6. Moderation rules can vary between forums
depending on the audience, but the basics are to
keep things clean, respectful and on-topic. Make
these clear at the outset and stick to them.
7. Editing a community member’s comments leaves
you open to suggestions of censorship and is poor
practice. It’s best to either delete or accept them.
8. Be sure to let people know if, when and why you
have removed one of their comments.
9. Remain open to the argument that you’ve got it
wrong and that a comment is actually legitimate
and should be re-instated.
10. Consistent, active, independent, visible
moderation considerably lessens the probability
of high impact, unwelcome material being posted
onto your forum.
Bang The Table moderation rules for discussion
forums:
1. Never post personal information about another
forum participant. This includes identifying any
individual by their real name if they have not
already done so or providing personal contact
information.
2. Never identify a staff member of the consulting
organisation by name.
3. Don’t defame anyone or any organisation. A
comment is defamatory if it lowers or harms the
reputation of a person or organisation. If you
wish to accuse someone of committing a crime or
being an idiot this is not the place to do it.
4. Don’t post anything that could be considered
intolerant of a person’s race, culture, appearance,
gender, sexual preference, religion or age.
5. Don’t be obscene and don’t use foul language.
Lots of people from different backgrounds
participate in these forums. We want them to
be able to continue to do so from home, work,
school, university or wherever they may be.
Disguising swear words by deliberately misspelling
them doesn’t make them any less offensive.
6. Don’t personally insult or harass other
participants. Always focus on the logic of the
argument rather than the individuals involved in
the argument. Users are entitled to choose not to
enter into debate with you.
7. Don’t post or link to any inappropriate, offensive
or illegal material. Inappropriate content is
anything that may offend or is not relevant to the
discussion.
8. Don’t post any advertisements, however much
you believe in the service or product.
9. Don’t complain about the moderation on the site,
you can always direct an email to us if you are
unhappy.
Breaches of the moderation rules will be dealt with:
1. Removal of Comment - any comment that, in the
view of the moderator, breaches the rules will be
removed.
2. Temporary Suspension - a participant who
repeatedly and flagrantly flouts the moderation
rules may be suspended from access to the site
for period of up to one week as determined by
the moderators. The period will reflect both the
severity and consistency of the breach.
3. Permanent Blocking - a participant who continues
to violate the moderation rules following
reinstatement after a period of suspension may
have their access to the site permanently blocked.
4. Automatic Blocking - a participant who posts or
links to inappropriate, offensive or illegal material
will be immediately blocked from the site.
Strategic Communications
Department of Premier and Cabinet
Level 11, Bligh House
4-6 Bligh Street
Sydney NSW 2000
haveyoursay@dpc.nsw.gov.au
www.advertising.nsw.gov.au/strategic-communications
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