Terms and Conditions

Members’ Community etiquette standards and guidelines 

This applies to Data Profession and the Digital Profession on this member community platform. These professions are referred to as the “APS Professions”.

Thank you for joining the Members’ Community. To ensure the best possible experience for all members, the APS Professions have established these standards and guidelines for participation. We based these on the Members’ code, which was developed in collaboration with our members.  
  
By joining and using this community you understand and consent to the use of your personal information in accordance with the privacy policy and privacy notice as updated from time to time. You also agree that you have read and will follow these standards and guidelines. 
 
This platform is intended to be a helpful resource for all members to ask questions, learn from one another and engage in a professional community. In the interests of this goal, the Digital Profession reserve the right to remove content, or suspend or terminate membership in this community for anyone who does not uphold these standards. This site is unclassified. You must not post sensitive or classified information.  
 
You must keep your login details confidential and you must not provide your log-in details to any other person for use, or allow any other person to use your Community account. You are solely responsible for all content posted from your account.  

Standards of Behaviour 

You must always act in accordance with the APS Code of Conduct and APS Values, and in compliance with any relevant policies in your workplace. For more guidance see the APS Values and Code of Conduct in practice.  
As a member of the Digital Profession Member’s Community, you must: 
a) Always interact with others in ways that contribute to an open, welcoming, diverse, inclusive and positive community. 

b) Respect others. Always use respectful and inclusive language. Be respectful of differing opinions, viewpoints and experiences. Remember that this forum includes members at all stages of their career and all levels of experience. Try not to make assumptions about a person or blame them for not knowing or understanding something.

c) Respect the purpose of the community. This community is for digital professionals who are commonwealth employees, and content on the site should reflect this. You can best participate in the community by posting content which adds value to members. This includes content users will find helpful, asking relevant questions or providing thoughtful answers, or providing resources related to digital work.

Examples of topics which are not relevant to the purpose of the site include:  
  • political commentary  
  • advertising or promotion for commercial gain  
  • romantic advances towards other users.  
You must only post content which is appropriate for the site and the audience. This site includes a wide diversity of users and is a professional workspace. Examples of content which is not appropriate for this site include:  
  • content containing sexual references or which is sexual in nature  
  • trolling, insulting or derogatory comments, and personal or political attacks  
  • public or private harassment  
  • publishing others’ private information, such as a physical or email addresses, without their explicit permission  
  • content depicting or discussing violence  
  • content associated with users participating in illegal activities  
  • other conduct which could reasonably be considered inappropriate in a professional setting.  
You must respect the privacy of other members. Do not assume information you have access to about another member is public just because you can see it. Ensure you do not disclose the personal information of other members without their express consent. 
Notwithstanding the above, we recommend that you treat this site, including communities and messages, as if they are public. They are accessible to many people, will be displayed on devices in professional work environments and are retained by the Digital Profession team. Assume whatever you are posting might appear as a notification on someone’s screen during an all-staff meeting and consider if you would be comfortable with that.  
You must comply with intellectual property law and only post content that you have personally created or have permission to use and have properly attributed to the content creator. See the legal disclaimer below for further information on this.  
 
This site uses cookies. A cookie is a piece of information contained within a small file that a website sends to your browser when you access information at that site. This site uses session-based cookies to gather website usage data. You can change your web browser settings to reject cookies or to prompt you each time a website wishes to add a cookie to your browser.

Guidelines 

Posting content

You must not post any content or documents that would damage or bring into disrepute the reputation of the Australian Public Service or the Australian Government. 

You must not post any content or documents that contain harmful material. Harmful material includes any software or code that infiltrates, damages, alters, corrupts, detrimentally interferes with, surreptitiously intercepts or expropriates any computer system, any information, data, software or system. 

Post your message or documents to the most appropriate communities. This helps ensure all messages receive the best response by eliminating noise.

State concisely and clearly the topic of your posts in the subject line. This allows members to respond more appropriately to your posting and makes it easier for members to search the archives by subject.

When posting items in our collaborative environment, please indicate if the item is not available for reuse. If you want to use an item you find on the site, you should ask the person who uploaded it for permission.  
These guidelines are adapted from the Contributor Covenant, version 2.0, available at https://www.contributor-covenant.org/version/2/0/code_of_conduct/.

How to report user conduct 

If you believe the conduct of another member on this platform does not adhere to these standards and guidelines, please report it to the Digital Profession team. Please do not engage with or comment on such behaviour.

You can report posts and comments directly through the site using the “mark as inappropriate” action.

To report any other content, including private messages, use the contact form. This is the best way to ensure your report is seen and actioned. We will respect the privacy of any member who reports inappropriate behaviour. For privacy and other reasons, you may not hear back from the Digital Profession team, even if we act on your report.

Legal disclaimer 

This website is provided as a service for the members of the  Data and Digital Profession by the Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) and the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS). Information provided on this Members’ Community, including page content, events and interactive tools, is for general information and on the understanding that the APSC, ABS or the APS Profession is not providing professional advice on a particular matter. 
While the APSC, ABS and the APS Professions make every effort to ensure that the material on this website is accurate and up-to-date, you should exercise your own independent skill and judgement before you rely on it. This website is not a substitute for independent professional advice and users should obtain any appropriate professional advice relevant to their particular circumstances. 
 
The APSC, ABS and the APS Professions does not warrant or guarantee, and accepts no legal liability whatsoever arising from or connected to, the accuracy, reliability, currency or completeness of any material contained on this web site or on any linked site.  
The APS Professions, the APSC and ABS are not responsible for the opinions, information and content posted on this site by others. These views may not reflect the views of the APS Professions, APSC, ABS or the Australian Government. This site is moderated, however we rely on members to bring inappropriate postings to our attention, at which time we will take fair and appropriate action.  
 
This site includes links to external websites. Links to other websites do not constitute endorsement of material at those sites, or any associated organisation, product or service. Please make your own decision on how accurate, current and reliable such information is.  
In no event shall the APS Profession or APSC or ABS be liable for any special, indirect, or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use or data arising, including the downloading of any harmful material, out of or in connection with the use of any information posted on this site. Visitors and members should ensure they have adequate protection against viruses when accessing the internet. 
  
In line with the standards above, members must not post any: 
  • defamatory, abusive, profane, threatening, offensive or illegal material 
  • classified information 
  • information or other material protected by copyright without the permission of the copyright owner.
By posting material, the posting party warrants and represents that he or she owns the copyright with respect to such material or has received permission from the copyright owner. In addition, the posting party grants the APS Profession, APSC, ABS and users of this site the non-exclusive right and license to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print and use such information or other material.  
Except as expressly stated in these Terms and Conditions, no part of the APS Profession Members’ Community may be copied, reproduced, republished, uploaded, posted, publicly displayed, encoded, translated, transmitted or distributed in any way, without APSC, ABS or the ABS Profession’s express prior written consent. 
  
The APSC. ABS  or the APS Profession reserves the right, at its sole discretion, to change, modify, add or remove portions of these Terms and Conditions at any time. In the event that the Terms and Conditions are amended, we will notify you by the email provided on your APS Profession Members’ Community account. Your continued use of the APS Profession Members’ Community following the posting of changes will mean that you accept and agree to any changes. 
 
If you have questions about these standards, contact the APS Profession Member Services Team. For more information about what data the Digital Profession collects, you can review the privacy notice for this platform. Additional information about how the APS Profession will manage personal information is available in the APSC Privacy Policy.  
 
APS Profession, ABS and APSC reserves the right to terminate access to any user who does not abide by these standards and guidelines.