Policy to manage reports and FB groups
Content of Reports
Contagion data, healed, dead
We try to use only official sources.
Try to avoid also data visualisation/interpretation from third parts. For instance, maps that are based on official data can put more attention on one aspect rather than another, they can transform data and add “bias”, even unintentionally.
On the FB group and other social media: we avoid publishing these data, they generate anxiety and get lost in the flow.
Official documents
We only link the official sources (for example: official institutional forms/documents).
Interpretations of laws, decrees, ordinances
We try to use only official sources, to avoid the responsibility of giving a wrong or incorrect interpretation.
Fundraising
If it looks like an advertise for a private company, don’t approve. (Example?)
In other cases, they are all approved in order to be checked later (maybe it’s something useful to communicate in some way!).
If they are private initiatives that support the public good, accept them.
Psychological support
To avoid problems (some private initiatives are not verifiable, unfortunately), let’s accept only the official ones, promoted by public bodies or associations and offering a free service. [under review]
Petitions
Is the proposer moved by political propaganda purposes? If so, do not approve
Is a petition for commercial purposes? If so, do not approve
Is the purpose for the collection of signatures clear? If not, do not approve
Does the petitioner correctly communicate how they will use the data they collect? If not, do not approve
News
Anticipations, drafts, unconfirmed semi-official acts are not news.
In general: let’s take it easy, even the biggest and most important newspapers are often wrong.
We only accept news that has “long life”, not breaking news or similar, news of public utility, news that helps to understand and does not generate panic or uncertainty.
Example of news to accept
Fake news
Let’s try to avoid the spreading of fake news by giving them visibility.
In the titles of accepted reports it is important to always add something like “It’s not true that”, or “Fake news”, or “No, it didn’t happen”. The meaning of the report has to be immediately visible.
When a Fake News is shared on the Facebook group, be careful that the link of the fake news itself is not shared as well, to avoid people clicking.
Rules to manage and edit the reports on Github
Process of reports management:
- Verification of possible duplication
- Open the link to check the source
- Edit the title
- Check for errors in the description
- Geolocation verification
- Label assignment
- Accept or not accept the report according to the agreed policy
VERIFICATION OF DUPLICATION: if there are two reports with the same content, add to the last one, or to the most incomplete one, the sentence: “already entered in #issue”, put the label “Not accepted” and close the report.
OPEN THE LINK to check the source
TITLE: if it is possible, add to the title the geographic reference (region, province, city…) through an hashtag (for instance #Lisboa). If the name is made by more words, put them together (#Camaradelobos)
Title font always in lower case (no capslock). No too long titles. Self-explanatory titles (Be careful that reports with the label Bulletin go directly on Twitter). Do not use uncommon abbreviations, if possible describe them.
DESCRIPTION: correct the typos. Add more information if the description is too short. Font always lowercase.
GEOLOCATION: follow the wiki
Bulletin
The label bulletin should only be placed after the issue title has been edited.
What goes on the bulletin?
- All requests and offers of help
- Home services, at least those offered nationally by large organisations (see Red Cross) and those offered in big cities.
- Recreational/cultural initiatives of a certain interest (to be evaluated from time to time)
- Relevant news (to be evaluated from time to time)
- All Fake News
- Fundraising: I would start by pointing out the most important ones towards hospitals, for voluntary support and strengthening services towards the most fragile. then we’ll see how many there are and eventually we’ll include the others in the bulletin.
- Institutional documents
Milestone
The Milestone function is a sort of reminder for reports that have a deadline (events, webinars…). In the report on the right click on Milestone and enter the expiry date (e.g. April 6), as in this report.
Periodically check the Milestone section and see if there are any expired issues and close them.
Rules for Managing Reports from Facebook Group to Github
Process:
- Accept or not accept the report according to the agreed policy
- Assign label: go to the post > click three dots in the top right corner > click add topic of the post and assign labels in the same way you assign them in Github
- Follow the process provided for Github
- Indicate to the author of the post the link to the platform on which he can find his report
Management of the Facebook group
POST APPROVAL
Before approving a post the information must be checked and verified according to the policy, after which the approval procedure is as follows.
You approve the post, you do not pre-approve the author of the post.
In general, we not recommend pre-approving a person: you never know how many and which posts he or she will be able to publish in a moment of great sociality.
If by chance you pre-approve a person (not recommended, precisely) who then starts posting reports not useful to people in response to the Coronavirus emergency, the procedure to use is as follows:
COMMENTS MODERATION
If a user comments inappropriately or incorrectly, the procedure is as follows:
- Answer the comment, explaining why it is inappropriate or incorrect
- Remove the comment