As a news organisation we report on many different issues and many of them generate a lot of passion. We have a very diverse audience and a duty to provide an impartial and balanced output.
We are keen to encourage lively and informed debate but at the same time think that some of our Have Your Say topics will always require a closer level of editorial oversight. That is why we have introduced the following two types of moderation for our discussions:
1- Fully Moderated.
This is also known as pre-moderation. Every comment submitted to a fully moderated discussion has to be checked by a BBC moderator before it is published on the site. We try to publish as many comments as we can but unfortunately, due to the volume of comments we receive every day, we cannot guarantee that all comments submitted will be published.
2- Reactively moderated.
If a discussion is reactively moderated and you are a registered member, your comment will be published directly to the site. However, if you are not a registered member, your comment will still have to be approved by a BBC moderator before it is published. Again, we cannot guarantee that all comments submitted will be published.
The BBC will monitor the content of reactively moderated Have Your Say discussions and remove comments that break the House Rules. We encourage you to register to take advantage of our reactively moderated discussions.
Users of the site can always complain about any comment they see on the Have Your Say pages by using the "Complain about this Comment" button on each comment.
We want to keep as many topics as possible in reactive moderation because it will allow many more people to contribute to the debates. But there are some that will have to remain fully moderated. We hope that over time you, our users, will help us inform those editorial decisions.