Community Guidelines

Drive community standards, participation guidelines and moderation aims

Commenter community guidelines

Drive welcomes discussion and different points of view, but most importantly we value respectful and constructive correspondence with fellow readers and our journalists.

We have zero tolerance for comments which we believe could be considered inappropriate or insulting, exhibit troll-like behaviour, or have legal ramifications.

Commenters can flag potentially inappropriate comments for review, out of concern for others, or due to personal offence.

You can flag concerns via the menu next to a potentially offensive comment, or email us via our contact page.

How to comment:

Our comments run on the third-party Disqus platform, which requires users to set up an account.

You can register a Disqus profile either directly with Disqus, or with your Facebook, Twitter or Google accounts.

Unlike the early policies of Facebook and Google, Disqus does not require you use your real name.

However, we prefer commenters use their real name because they are then more likely to behave more maturely, rather than letting loose while hiding behind a pseudonym.

Our journalists put their name to their copy, we think it’s only fair commenters do the same, but understand many users have existing accounts that use pseudonyms.

Let’s keep it friendly:

We’ve invited you into our workplace, to be among a bunch of people who like to talk about cars and motoring.

Hopefully our comment forums help us and others broaden our knowledge, understanding, and passion for cars and the rules that govern them.

Discussion and debate are welcome, but comments that include personal attacks on another reader or a journalist are not acceptable.

While appreciating there will be, at times, different points of view, we reserve the right to caution commenters openly, delete, edit or modify a thread that breaches our guidelines, and suspend or ban repeat offenders.

In addition, we will not tolerate racism, sexism, homophobia or other forms of hate-speech, or contributions that could be interpreted as such.

Clarity and intent:

The tone of the written word is not always obvious, so stop and think twice before publishing your comment.

‘Shouting’ – letters, words, or sentences in capital letters – and the use of emojis, other symbols, and inappropriate language are frowned upon because they are designed to make one comment stand out from others.

Use of these and similar techniques could lead to the comment being deleted, edited, or modified at the discretion of our moderation team. Repeat offenders may face have face suspension or a permanent ban.

User images (avatars):

Distasteful imagery in Disqus user photo/picture profiles (also known as an avatar) is banned on Drive.

Examples of banned content include sexually explicit, suggestive or revealing imagery; depictions of violence or gore; crude imagery; the celebration or depiction of criminals or criminal activity; propaganda.

Back-up profiles:

Commenters are asked to maintain one profile only, and our moderators flag the IP addresses of repeat offenders.

Repeat offenders with multiple accounts will be banned from our comments section.

Links:

Links to all websites have been disabled, to protect our site and visitors against spam and malware.

Links to other Drive.com.au stories are allowed, however comments that include such links will be initially withheld pending a review before being posted.

Who moderates Drive?

The monitoring and moderation of discussion in the comments section of Drive.com.au are done by our editorial team and a dedicated moderating team.

Footnote: These guidelines may be revised or updated at any time, without notice.