We ask you to please bear in mind our guidelines when submitting comments. Where views have been sought, all comments will be considered before the response is published.

Guidelines for taking part in discussions

Contributions may be moderated, that is, checked to make sure they don’t break our rules. You will need to keep your contributions constructive, relevant and civil.

We pre-moderate most of the comments we receive. ‘Pre-moderation’ means that comments will not be published instantly. Comments will be checked first by moderators who will monitor the site during normal working hours (0900 – 1730, GMT) and aim to process comments as quickly as possible.

The first comments posted by a user are moderated but subsequent comments by the same user are not, after first comment has been approved. This enables us to streamline the process and moderate comments quickly and efficiently.

This is not about censoring your views. The aim is to ensure that comments relate to the particular subject being discussed. Moderation will not be used to suppress legitimate, reasoned discussion.

Sometimes there is a delay in publishing whilst we seek information from various sources to be included in our response to questions.

The following rules and guidelines are to protect both you and the National Elf Service, and our moderators will remove contributions that break the rules.

1. Comments must be relevant to the page they are to appear on.
2. Be civil: respect other humans and elves. Comments should not be malicious or offensive in nature, and should not constitute a personal attack on a person’s character.
3. Don’t incite hatred on the basis of race, religion, gender, nationality or sexuality or any other personal or elf characteristic.
4. Don’t reveal personal details, such as private addresses, phone numbers, email addresses or other online contact details.
5. Write comments that are reasonably concise, and don’t constitute spamming of the site.
6. Don’t impersonate or falsely claim to represent a person or organisation.
7. Don’t write comments that are not party political in nature. Whilst we acknowledge that references to political parties and their policies may often be inevitable, we reserve the right to exclude comments which are purely party-political in nature.
8. Don’t include swearing, hate-speech or obscenity. People of all ages use the National Elf Service website and language should be suitable for them.
9. Don’t break the law – this includes libel, condoning illegal activity, and breaking copyright.
10. Comments that stereotype sections of society will be removed.
11. Comments containing threats of public fear, terrorism or threats towards any individual are not permitted.
12. Don’t advertise commercial products and services – you can mention relevant products and services as long as they support your comment.
13. Write in English – unfortunately, we do not currently have the resource to moderate comments in other languages.
14. Do not write in capital letters – on the internet this is regarded as “shouting” and many people are offended by it.
15. Duplicate comments or repeats will be removed.
16. If you are aged 16 or under, please get your parent/guardian’s permission before submitting a comment. Users without this consent are not allowed to participate or provide us with personal information.

We reserve the right to suspend comments at any time, and remove any comment that we think breaks our rules.  Comments may also be removed if they are older than six months.

Where we choose not to publish a comment for a reason other than those listed above, we will reply to the commenter by email explaining our reason and inviting them to make appropriate changes so that the comment can be reconsidered.

We read every comment, and respond wherever we can. We endeavour to answer your questions where possible, but if you require an official response you should contact the National Elf Service by post or email.