Community guidelines

These guidelines outline the ground rules for taking part in the consumer.org.nz community.

The Consumer community areas include member comments on our reports and news items, members ratings of products and services, and other channels for members to interact that we may provide.

Community moderation

Our community areas are designed primarily as a place for members to share and exchange ideas on current topics of consumer interest.

Consumer staff will review community contributions, and moderate where necessary to maintain focus, assist with references to our information, and to ensure that our guidelines are respected.

We encourage in-depth exploration of important consumer issues among members, and our experts may join in occasionally to add new information and perspective. However, Consumer Staff responsibilities as testers, writers, and editors limit their availability for extended dialogue.

We reserve the right to remove or edit any comments that we believe breach our guidelines, and to remove member access rights to our community areas where necessary. See our Terms & Conditions for more information.

Community rules

Show respect to others
Be polite and respect different points of view. Please do not swear or use insulting or offensive language, in posts, replies or user names. Be aware that what you consider ironic or witty may not always seem so to other members.

Personal attacks on members, moderators or staff will not be tolerated.

Stay on the topic
Please ensure that your posts are relevant to the topic under discussion.

No commercial promotion
You are welcome to post your views on specific products and services. However, don't use the community areas to promote or advertise products and services for your own gain, or on behalf of your employer. If you have a commercial or financial interest in a product or service under discussion, you should disclose this as part of any post you make.

Use your judgement
We can't vouch for the accuracy or quality of comments posted in our community areas. You must use your own judgement to assess the usefulness of what you read there.

Copyright
Post only material that is yours, or where you have the express permission of the copyright owner.

Safety
Comments that promote unsafe practices or information are not permitted.

No spamming or malicious links
The same or similar message posted more than once may be considered spam and removed. Please do not post links to objectionable or irrelevant sites, or malicious code.

Reporting abuse
If you see a comment you believe breaches these guidelines, please notify us by emailing feedback@consumer.org.nz. 

Privacy & legal matters

Privacy
When you submit a comment, your name is displayed with your comment. Alternatively, you can choose a "screen name"  to display instead of your name. You can setup your screen name on your community profile page.

We don't publicly display any other personal information in our community areas. We strongly advise that you do not post your email address, home address, or phone number as part of your community contributions. See Your Privacy for more information.

Use of your posts
The messages you post in our community areas may be used by Consumer as part of our research and publication, and we reserve the right to copy or quote them here or in other media.

New Zealand laws apply.
New Zealand laws apply to our community areas. Please do not suggest or encourage illegal activity.