Protecting our community
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As part of our commitment to our ethos, we have several methods of protecting our members from potentially harmful material:
Accounts are private until they are made public by the user
Account privacy
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We know that for some people, joining an online community and having a profile that others can freely interact with can be overwhelming. That's why, for anyone that joins the Talking Mental Health community, accounts are initially private. Private members can access Stories and contribute their own whenever they like through the Contribute page, without other users being able to interact with them.
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Accounts remain private for as long as the user wishes. If they want to make their profile – which allows them to follow other members, comment on posts and contribute stories attributed to them without the need to for administrative review – they can do so by clicking the 'Make Profile Public' button, and then clicking 'Confirm' when prompted.
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Accounts can be made private again at any time. Here's how.
Members need to request to become a writer
Contributor accountability​
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Once a member makes their profile public, they can publish stories whenever they like. But we also want to make sure the content being shared on our site is always helpful to other users.
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To minimise the likelihood of negative content being shared on our site, members need to request to become a writer. This can be done by visiting the 'Make a Request' tab of their profile and clicking the 'Request to become a writer' button. They will then need to provide their username and agree to our terms of membership before their request is reviewed by an administrator.
Community content and behaviour flagging
Protection against harmful content
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Of course, there may still be instances where negative content can be published by a member. To ensure negative content remains on the site for as short a time as possible, members of our community can flag a story or member behaviour they believe to be harmful by using the 'Report an issue' link in the 'About' menu.
Flagged stories are temporarily unpublished and reviewed by an administrator and, if judged to be in contempt of our ethos, will be permanently deleted. If deemed safe, the post will be re-published. The author of the harmful post will also be investigated and, if they have consistently demonstrated harmful behaviour, will be subject to account deletion