Community Guidelines

Pages may only represent genuine businesses, organisations, venues, charities, clubs, public services or established community groups.

The person creating or managing a page must be authorised to represent that organisation. Pages must not impersonate, duplicate or falsely claim a connection to another organisation.

Everything published should be accurate, current and written in good faith.

Events should be real, deals should be genuinely available and page information should reflect the organisation it represents.

Mistakes happen. When something changes, update it as soon as reasonably possible.

East Lothian Online is for helping people discover places, events, offers and practical updates from local organisations.

Posts should have a clear local purpose. They should help someone decide where to go, what to do, what is available or whether something has changed.

Alerts are for short, useful updates from organisations, such as an unexpected closure, changed opening hours, a cancelled class, limited availability or a temporary service issue.

For example: “Our oven has broken, so we are closing early today.”

East Lothian Online is not a breaking-news service, emergency alert system or place for reporting incidents. Urgent or dangerous situations should always be reported to the appropriate emergency service or authority.

East Lothian Online is not a public discussion forum, personal profile network or local gossip page.

It is not a place for arguments, commentary about private individuals, political debate, rumours, reviews or personal status updates.

Content should come from the organisation itself and relate directly to what it offers or what people need to know.

Promote your own work without attacking, mocking or misrepresenting another organisation.

Do not create misleading comparisons, post as a competitor or use East Lothian Online to interfere with another organisation's reputation or activity.

Only publish personal information, photographs or contact details when you have a proper reason and permission to do so.

Take particular care with images or information involving children and vulnerable people.

Images, logos, descriptions and promotional material should belong to your organisation or be used with permission.

Give credit where it is due and do not present another person's work as your own.

Organisations are expected to keep important details such as opening hours, contact information and availability reasonably up to date.

Remove expired offers and correct cancelled or changed events so people are not sent in the wrong direction.

Pages may be reviewed before they are approved, and posts may be checked where necessary.

We may edit, refuse or remove content that is false, misleading, irrelevant, unauthorised, inappropriate for the platform or likely to damage trust in the local information we provide.

Our aim is not to police ordinary mistakes. It is to keep East Lothian Online useful, trustworthy and genuinely local.

Before publishing something, ask:

Is this true, useful and appropriate for an organisation to share with the local community?

If it is, it probably belongs on East Lothian Online.