If you use a digibox to access h2g2, you may be unable to use h2g2's Complaints Button ('Yikes button'). A group has been established to help you with this problem. Please read all of the information given in this article before asking us to make a complaint on your behalf.

When a complaint should be made

• If the post/article/personal space breaks h2g2's House Rules

• Not if you simply disagree with what someone has written, unless you personally find it offensive

• For more information, please read h2g2's moderation help page

How to ask the group to make a complaint

You should email [email protected] with information about what should be 'Yikesed' and why you think it should be 'Yikesed'.

You must include:

• Your h2g2 nickname. Your nickname is shown at the top of all of your posts. Alternatively, to find out what your h2g2 nickname is, you can click 'Preferences'. It will be shown there.

• Your U-number. To find your U-number, click on a 'My Space' link and look at the address that you are sent to. It will end with a number, such as 'U123456'. In this case, 'U123456' is your U-number. Your U-number never changes, so, once you have found out what it is, write it down somewhere for the next time you need to email the group.

• The reason that a complaint should be made. This should describe briefly either which House Rules the post/article/personal space breaks, or make clear that it offends you.

• For an article, you must give the A-number of the article. When you visit the article, the article's A-number will be shown near the top of the page, in the form A123456.

• For a personal space, you must give the U-number of the personal space. When you visit the personal space, the personal space's U-number will be shown near the top of the page, in the form U123456.

• For a forum post, you must include the article/personal space A-number/U-number where the thread was posted, the name of the thread and the number of the post within the thread. At the top of the thread, you will see 'This is the Conversation Forum for [name]' or 'This is the Message Centre for [name]'. If you click [name], you will be taken to the article or personal space to which the thread is attached. As described above, you can find the article/personal space's A-number/U-number. The name of the thread is the title of the first post in it. The number of the post in the thread is next to the post, written as 'Posting 3' or 'Post: 3' for the third post in the thread.

Examples

If Santa (U12) wanted to ask the group to complain on his behalf about the (nonexistent) article A123456 because it contained a banned word, he would write an email to [email protected] similar to the following:

If Santa wanted to ask the group to complain on his behalf about the (nonexistent) 17th post in the thread 'Comments', posted on A1108252, because it was defamatory, he would write an email to [email protected] similar to the following:

What the group will do

If all the required information is in the email, we will make a complaint on your behalf, using the complaints button, as soon as we can. We will make it clear that we are complaining on behalf of you, giving your h2g2 nickname and U-number in the email. We will include the reason that you think the content should be yikesed.

You will receive two emails. The first email is automatically-generated, sent as soon as the complaint is made, and will state that a complaint has been made. The second email is also automatically-generated, and will state that the content has been hidden; that the content has been edited; or that no action was taken, depending on the action, if any, that the Moderator takes. There will be a delay of up to three hours, although it is usually less than half an hour, between the complaint being made and the Moderator taking action. As soon as the Moderator makes their decision, you will receive the second email.

If you disagree with the Moderator's decision, you should reply to the second email, and one of h2g2's Editors will reply to this email, within UK office hours, to either explain in more detail why the Moderator took the action that they did, or to state that the Editors also disagree with the previous moderation decision, and have themselves taken further action. If you do not agree with how the Moderator dealt with the complaint, do not email the group again. We will not complain about the same content twice. You should reply to the second email that you receive.

All the required information is not given

If any of the required information is not given in the email you send to the group, we will send you an email, asking you to send us the rest of the information. Until you respond to this email, we will be unable to complain about the content on your behalf. Once we have all the required information, we will make the complaint as usual, and you will receive a further two emails sent by the moderators, not by us.

We disagree with the complaint

Even if we disagree with the complaint that you think should be made, we will, nevertheless, complain about it on your behalf.

How to join the group

Please either contact Mr Manda onsite or send an email to [email protected] explaining that you would like to join the group. You must be able to use the complaints button to join the group. You do not have to be a member of the group to ask us to make a complaint on your behalf. Whether we then invite you to join the group is entirely at our discretion, although almost all who volunteer will be invited to join.

Complaint Message

A message similar to this will be used when a member of the group makes a complaint on behalf of a person who has emailed the group.

Privacy

Important: Anybody in the group, or who later joins the group, will have the ability to read any emails sent at any time to [email protected], and to find out the email address that you used to send it. If you join the group, which is not required to send an email to it, members of the group will, again, be able to see your email address. If you are not happy with this, although we think that everyone in the group is trustworthy, please neither email the group nor ask to join the group.