Some responses can now be published more quickly

All the stories posted on Care Opinion are read carefully (moderated) by our team before they appear online. We do that to keep things safe and civil for everyone involved, and also to ensure the stories will reach the right people in the right places.

We also moderate responses from staff and from story authors. In order to streamline the process, we're changing the way we moderate responses.

Responses from story authors will continue to be moderated by our team just as they are now. Responses from less experienced staff responders will also continue to be moderated by our team.

As responders gain experience and expertise, our system will allow their responses to be published immediately (but only for responses to stories which do not raise serious concerns).

This innovative risk-based system means that many responses can be safely published without delay, even out of hours, and moderators can focus attention on less experienced responders and on responses to more critical feedback. We call this “fast-track response approval”.

How it looks when you are responding

When you are entering your response, you’ll be able to see whether we plan to moderate it, or whether we will publish it immediately.

In either case, you can preview your response, so you can be sure it looks right before you submit it. Once you submit it, you'll have a short time (30 minutes) when you can still edit or delete your response.

If your response will be moderated by our team, the responding area will show this message:

If your response will be fast-tracked (i.e. published immediately after the 30 minute editing period), you'll see this message instead:

How does the system work exactly?

Our system takes account of a few different factors in deciding whether your response can be fast-tracked.

First, it looks at your recent experience of submitting responses. It takes account of how many of your last ten responses were published, rejected, or edited heavily.

Second, it looks at how critical the story you are responding to is. For very critical stories, we will always moderate your response.

Third, it looks at whether you are making a change claim. If so, we will moderate so we can check you have explained what the change is.

Fourth, it looks at whether you have included any pictures in your response. If so we will moderate to ensure the pictures are appropriate for online publication.

If you are concerned about the system or feel it isn't working properly, please do let us know.