Participating online as a Civil Servant

The Civil Service Live Network is a business tool aimed at helping Civil Servants build connections with colleagues, share experiences, and learn from the experiences of others. There are no rules which prevent you, as a Civil Servant, from actively participating within the Civil Service Live Network.

The Cabinet office has issued Guidance for Civil Servants who wish to participate online: http://www.opsi.gov.uk/advice/poi/participation-online.pdf

About the House Rules

In order to ensure that all members feel welcome and safe to contribute, we’ve created a set of rules which we require members to abide by. The guidelines below set out the do’s and don’ts. Infringement of these rules may lead to action being taken against your account, for example the removal of a piece of content or your abilty to publish content on the site in future. In extreme circumstances, breaking the rules may lead to the full suspension of your account or legal action being taken against you by an aggrieved party.


The responsibilities of community members:

Community members should ensure that their content fully complies with any legal requirements (for example, ensuring they are not libelous or defamatory) and should conduct themselves always within the guidelines stated below.

Community members should keep their passwords secure to ensure that no comments or other content can be submitted falsely using the their name. We will not be held responsible for events resulting from a failure to keep the password secure.

Disciplinary procedure

Breaking the rules may lead to your membership account being temporarily suspended or terminated. We additionally reserve the right to suspend or terminate any membership account at any time and at our sole discretion. While suspended, do not try returning to the site and creating another account. This constitutes a further offense and will result in your account being closed permanently.

We also reserve the right to delete any posting, any time, for any reason and are under no obligation to publish any work submitted.


Who can submit content?

Any registered member can submit content. We welcome content from all our users, although the content submitted should not be used for commercial purposes.

Keep it legal

Contempt of court is a body of law which protects the integrity of the judicial process from outside influencers. You could be in contempt of court if you discuss a criminal case which is “active”, a period which usually beings with the granting of an arrest warrant, issue of a summons or actual arrest. Avoid being in contempt of court by not posting anything that risks prejudicing on-going or forthcoming court proceedings. Don’t break court injunctions by naming individuals or speculating as to their whereabouts after a court has issued an injunction against doing so.


No defamatory or libelous comments

If you publish something capable of causing a ‘right thinking member of the public’ to lower their opinion of a person or organisation, or which otherwise damages the reputation of another, it may be possible for them to sue you for libel. If successfully sued by an aggrieved party you could be held liable for considerable damages and costs.


Do not incite people to commit any crime or incite racial hatred.


Do not post plagiarized content

Quoting small sections of a text or other piece of content for the purpose of discussion is usually fine, but please don’t re-publish full texts to which you do not own the copyright.


Keep it clean, keep it fun

Comments can be controversial but should not be alienating. Do not post content that is harassing, unlawful, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, homophobic or racially offensive.


Passion is encouraged, over zealousness is not

To allow as many people as possible to publish a comment keep contributions per debate to a reasonable level. Multiple posts from one individual or a group of individuals can discourage others who might also wish to contribute.


Keep it clean

People of all sensitivities use this service, many from a business environment. Please don’t use swearwords or post content that might offend fellow users.


Nobody likes a spammer

Don't re post the same content, or very similar content, more than once.


Keep your post relevant

Posts which aren't relevant lower the value of the experience for everyone.


No impersonating

Impersonating other people (including other members) is unacceptable.