Participation in the yourHealth blog

Thank you for your participation in the yourHealth blog. Please take note of the Moderation policy and Protocols for participation. Users wishing to participate in the yourHealth blog must agree to the terms and conditions before being able to post comments.

• How to register
• Contributing to the discussion
• Moderation policy
• Protocols for participation

How to register

Users who wish to comment on the yourHealth blog will need to register, choosing a unique username to serve as their identifier. Please note, usernames are limited to 20 characters in length and any usernames considered offensive, inflammatory or otherwise in breach of the Protocols for participation will not be accepted.

When you register you must provide a valid email address. This will be used to confirm your registration.

Once you have registered you may use your username and password to login and post comments to any open blog post.

By registering and contributing to the blog, you give permission for your comments to be posted on the site.

Register now.

Contributing to the discussion

Once registered, locate the blog post that interests you, login using your username and password and post a comment.

Comments are limited to 5000 characters.

All blog comments are subject to moderation and so publication of comments will not be immediate.

The purpose of moderation is to ensure that the discussion remains on topic, does not include offensive or discriminatory language and that no person’s privacy or security is breached.

Moderators check all comments against the published blog Moderation policy and Protocols for participation, as outlined below.

Moderation policy

We welcome your participation in the yourHealth blog. To ensure that your contributions meets legal requirements and the discussion stays on track, all comments posted to the blog will be moderated by the Department of Health and Ageing (the Department) before publication, according to the Protocols for participation outlined below.

Blog comments that do not comply with these Protocols will not be published. Contributions will only be moderated in accordance with the Protocols.

Moderation and publication of comments will take place during business hours, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. While users may submit comments at any time, comments will only be processed and posted during business hours. We undertake to moderate all comments within 24 hours of receipt, during normal business weeks.

Users of the blog acknowledge there will be delay to allow moderation and that publication of comments will not be immediate. During moderation, comments are kept in a secure database accessed only by DoHA Taskforce Communications staff. As moderation will only take place during the above listed business hours, comments posted outside of these times will experience longer delays in posting.

The blog will close after the consultation period and all blog posts and comments will be archived at that time according to the Departments record keeping policies.

Protocols for participation

The intent of the Protocols for participation is to create a positive environment where people are able to publicly contribute their views to the blog, in the spirit of having input to health reform policy, without fear of abuse or harassment or exposure to offensive or otherwise inappropriate content and protecting the operators of the consultation forum from legal liability.

Blog comments that do not comply with these Protocols will not be published. Contributions will only be moderated in accordance with the Protocols.

Commenting in the yourHealth blog is like speaking at a physical meeting, so normal social conventions apply. Help us to keep the conversation on topic by being polite, constructive and respectful of others.

By contributing to the blog, you:

• give permission for your comments to be posted on the site (see Privacy Statement) and affirm that your comments represent your own work and do not infringe on the copyright of any other individual or organisation.
• acknowledge that your comments will be subject to moderation by Department of Health and Ageing (Department) moderators before publication and therefore the publication of comments will not be immediate.
• acknowledge that your comments may be edited for any typographical, grammatical or spelling errors;
• acknowledge and give permission for your comments to be used, without personal identification, by the Department and/or the Government for any purpose.
• acknowledge that comments that contain images, audio or video will not be published, irrespective of content.
• acknowledge all material on this site is subject to copyright. For more information, view the Copyright Statement;

When contributing your views to this blog, you will ensure that you:

• do protect your personal privacy and that of others by not including personal information about yourself or others in your comments, (such as names, email addresses, private addresses or phone numbers);
• do post material to the forum that is relevant to the issues being consulted on;
• do represent your own views and do not impersonate or falsely represent any other person;
• do not abuse, harass or threaten others;
• do not make defamatory or libellous comments;
• do not use insulting, provocative or hateful language;
• do not use obscene or offensive language;
• do not post material to the forum that infringes the intellectual property rights of others;
• do not post multiple versions of the same view to the forum;
• do not promote commercial interests in your posts to the forum;
• do not include internet addresses, videos, images or any email addresses, in your contribution;
• do not post comments promoting personal professional interests;
• do not post overtly party political comment (eg. reference to candidates, fundraisers, support for political parties); and
• do not incite, encourage or make reference to conduct that may constitute a criminal or civil offence or otherwise violate Australian law

Any comments that do not comply with these Protocols will not be published.