Tuesday 7 February 2012

FAQs

The community area is a place for your voice to be heard and this page explains a bit more about how it works and hopefully answers some of the questions you may have. If it doesn't, you can contact us at telegr...@survey.edigitalresearch.com and we will get back to you within five working days.

How it works

Tell The Telegraph Forums

The forums are like message boards; use the 'Reply' button under any topic or post to add a reply or new thread to the discussion.

Who decides what topics to post?

Generally the moderator will post the topic and then you are free to discuss it with whoever else is online. If the focus of the topic is completely moving away from the original post, then the moderator may decide to post a comment to address this, however we believe in letting you have your say so we will only do this where completely necessary.

How are the comments I post used and how private are they?

A copy of the posts you make may be supplied in full to the Telegraph Media Group, however we will only include your username and in some cases some demographic information about you such as age or gender. The Tell The Telegraph Community is completely confidential and anonymous so your personal details such as email address and name will not be passed on with your posts.

Who are the forums for?

The forums are only for Tell The Telegraph Community members. Some forums you will be personally invited to join as they are topics that you have registered an interest in and some will be available at all times for you to login and participate in whenever you want.

Who runs the Tell The Telegraph Forums?

The Forum is hosted and managed by eDigital Research Ltd. You can contact us with any questions/comments or complaints at telegr...@survey.edigitalresearch.com and we will get back to you within five working days.

What do I do if I see something that I regard as inappropriate, irrelevant or just plain rude?

You must justify your view by writing a comment explaining why you don't agree with the post. You can also click on 'report post' and the moderator will investigate: if they agree that the post is inappropriate, they will remove it. Please note that any member that posts anything unjustified, negative or derogatory regarding any of the Tell The Telegraph organisers, breaks the terms and conditions, or is defamatory, obscene, indecent, threatening, abusive, harassing, unlawful or deemed to be incorrect, is likely to be suspended or deleted as a member of the panel without notice.

What happens if I get timed out?

If you are inactive for 59 minutes you will be automatically logged out of the site (unfortunately typing on the site is not classed as activity as it doesn't transmit any data to the server until you hit the button to submit your post). If this happens while you are writing a post, you will automatically be redirected to the login screen once you try to submit it. Provided you re-enter your login details straight away, it will automatically complete the submission of the post. Please note, if you do not try to re-login immediately then the post will be lost.

Usernames and passwords

Who is EGP-12345? What a strange username!

All members need to register for Tell The Telegraph with a username and password which should not be disclosed to anyone else, apart from the user name appearing in discussion. Members who for any reason do not give a username, or use their email address as their login, have their username hidden to preserve their privacy and an EGP-12345 number is used instead.

I am having trouble finding a username that hasn't already been taken

This happens sometimes and we do apologise; usernames must however be completely unique so other Tell The Telegraph members and our moderators can see who is contributing posts. It is worth trying to add a series of memorable numbers to the end of your chosen name, such as RJones1234, although we advise against using numbers such as your date of birth or anything that is personal.

I have forgotten my username and/or password

Go to the usual area where you login and click on the link which says 'forgotten your password'. You will be asked to supply the email address you used to register and your login details will be sent to that email account within a few minutes.

How is this different from the forums on telegraph.co.uk?

Tell The Telegraph forums are for specially invited members of the Reader Panel, and are your chance to give your feedback directly to the Telegraph Media Group, and exchange views with other members of the Reader Panel. They are not just open to use by anyone who visits our websites.

Moderation

Moderators

Some of the discussion areas on Tell The Telegraph will be moderated by eDigitalResearch from time to time. Moderators will steer the topics of discussion and ask questions to add to the debate.

eDigitalResearch endeavours to moderate the content of the forums, however they are in part self-regulating and you can at any time report unfavourable posts which will be dealt with accordingly within a reasonable time frame. The eDigitalResearch moderator will not be available to answer questions/reply to complaints directly on the forum. If you have a specific question for theeDigitalResearch team, email us at telegr...@survey.edigitalresearch.com and you will receive a response within five working days.

What details can other members see about me?

Your profile

Your contributions to the forums are available for all other Tell The Telegraph community members to see - your post history, username and the date you joined the panel will be visible online.

Can people see my email address or contact information?

No - only your username, post history and the date you joined the panel are displayed. Other information about you will only be revealed if you include it in your posts (we strongly recommend you don't do this!)

Online surveys

If you are also signed up to the Telegraph Subscribers Panel you will sometimes be invited to participate in your usual online survey and find that it is connected to a Tell The Telegraph forum.

Comments made in the survey by you will then become available in the forum for discussion - you will however be advised upfront that a survey links to a forum and that your answers to a particular question are being published so you can choose whether or not to proceed. Your comments will be published in the usual way and attributed to you by your Tell The Telegraph username. Once you've participated in the survey, you can then jump into the community area to see what everyone else is saying.