School discussion censorship Post Reply

[themotherofdragons]

Today is the day when Wandsworth secondary school places are announced. For the last few years, I had a big problem with the fact that Nappyvalleynet is censoring related content and removing or disabling comments on any relevant posts. Am I the only one? As an ex Head of Comms for a very well know international internet company, I firmly believe in monitoring sites for inappropriate or abusive content, however, I also firmly believe in freedom of speech. I believe the removal of school admission related content was a request from the Wandsworth council a few years ago, with which the site readily complied with. However, I also believe that this is very wrong. There are topics and issues in Britain that are far more sensitive these days but still openly discussed. This is honestly the only example of censorship I can see and I really struggle to understand it (while I understand the pressure they may be facing from their advertising partners and the council). You are either a discussion platform or you are not. I would be interested to hear other people's thoughts and to understand the basis of this decision. 

[Annabel (admin)]

Thank you for your post.

I am so sorry to hear that you are unhappy with NVN.

We do delete comments but only if they breach our guidelines. I can't think of any comments relating to schools that we've deleted for a long long time.

Can you please expand a bit further on the ones you mean?

Thank you.

[themotherofdragons]

Hi. Thanks for responding. I was personally on a primary schools admissions thread a few years ago which, understandably, prompted some heated (although not abusive or inappropriate) discussion about the catchments, new council policies related to primary place of residence, 800m moving out limit etc... That thread was closed with a post from admin saying that it was "closed on the request of Wandsworth Council". Speaking to my friends who recently went through the primary admission process for this year's entry, I believe the same happened this year and no posts related to state school admissions were allowed. I would love to understand the rationale and I still struggle with that post explaining that the thread was closed on the council's request. 

[Annabel (admin)]

So sorry.

Can you please send me the link to the posts or email me with more details if that is easier?

I have to say that I have no absolutely no recognition of this at all!

We do delete posts which become personal or breach guidelines but I can't see how would fall into this category.

I'd like to find out more...

Thank you.

[Annabel (admin)]

And just another thought - a really big part of our discussions are to do with council admissions so I'm just a bit confused!

Thank you.

[themotherofdragons]

I'm sorry but I'm not able to send the link to a thread that has been deleted and no longer exists... I didn't think of saving it at the time and there is no way now to search for something that has been removed. I've been on your forum, under one username or another, for over 8 years now and this is the only thing that I have ever disagreed with. If this post leads to a change in your policy about these posts, whether official or unofficial, I would be very happy.

[Annabel (admin)]

Ok.

Thank you.

I'll go and see if I can find it in the back end - it won't be till Monday but I'll try!

[Wandsworth Council]

On behalf of the council's communications/media team can I just add that we have never requested that comments be disabled on a particular issue or that residents be prevented from airing their views on this forum or any other  

[Wandsworth Council]

This might be what @themotherofdragons is referring to - but please see Annabel's explanation underneath our original posting

viewtopic.php?f=115&t=58983&p=136871#p136871

[Neptune214]

That seems to have settled that?  Ive never noticed any censorship and have read plenty of admissions and schools posts.

[TimothyGer]

hi, can anyone tell me the local school in the ears of roque del Conde please. Not a private school. Its for an 8 year old. Thank you.