To keep our social media sites enjoyable and lively, please respect the rules of the various platforms, and also observe the following guidelines. Trinity College reserves the right to remove posts that don’t comply.
General Principles
Think before you post. The internet has a history of thoughtless posts that users later regret.
Be respectful. Trinity is committed to showing respect for the dignity of others and to the civil and thoughtful discussion of differing ideas. If you wish to voice a complaint or disagree with another post, please do so in a polite and constructive manner. Obscenities, personal attacks, and defamatory comments about any person, group, organisation or belief will be removed.
Be accurate. Please check your facts before you post and ensure you use the most up to date information available. Cite – and link to – sources wherever possible. If you have made an error, correct it visibly and apologise. Posts containing factual errors may be removed or corrected.
Be honest. Be honest about who you are. State your sources when quoting others.
Be ethical. Ensure your posts are fair to all concerned and do not exploit others in any way.
Don’t breach copyright. Be particularly careful in regard to music (including video soundtracks), videos and photographs. If in doubt, please contact communications@trinity.unimelb.edu.au.
Add value and don’t spam. Supply and share information that is relevant and of interest to the Trinity community. Don’t use Trinity sites to promote businesses, causes, ideologies or political parties.
Any posts of this kind will be removed.
Post in the right place. There are a growing number of social media sites associated with Trinity College. Visit our social media directory to find the most appropriate site for your post.
Protect your privacy. Your comments are visible to all. Never include yours or others phone number, email address or other personal information in a post. Adjust the privacy settings on your social media sites to only disclose information you are happy for others to see.
Disclaimers
You are legally responsible for the comments you post. The inclusion of any non-Trinity link does not imply endorsement by Trinity of that website. Posts by Trinity site administrators will appear next to the official page icon. Any other posts or comments on the site do not necessarily reflect the opinions and positions of Trinity College.
Your commitment. By posting any comments, links or other material on Trinity-administered websites, you give Trinity College your permission to reproduce, distribute, publish, display, edit, modify, create derivative works from, and otherwise use your submission for any purpose in any form and on any media.
You also agree that you will not:
- Post material that infringes on the rights of any third party, including intellectual property, privacy or publicity rights.
- Post material that is unlawful, obscene, defamatory, threatening, harassing, abusive, slanderous, hateful, or embarrassing to any other person or entity as determined by Trinity in its sole discretion.
- Post ads or solicitations of business.
- Post the same note more than once ('spam').
- Post chain letters or pyramid schemes.
- Impersonate another person.
- Allow any other person or entity to use your identification for posting or viewing comments.
Staff and students
Trinity staff and students are reminded that their activities on social media are subject to their relevant Code of Conduct.
Read about the Student Code of Conduct.
Staff Code of Conduct.
Posts should also comply with Trinity's Information Technology policies accessible via the internal portal.
Site Administration
The Communications Office has overall responsibility for Trinity’s official social media sites. All enquiries or comments about the sites should be sent to communications@trinity.unimelb.edu.au
Associated Sites
Various groups associated with Trinity, such as alumni year groups, have created sites to share information relating to their particular areas of interest or experience. Such sites are administered independently and the College takes no responsibility for them.
Trinity does, however, encourage the growth of such sites and, if made aware of their existence, will provide links from Trinity administered sites to these related sites eg by adding them as 'Favourite Pages' on Facebook, or ‘following’ them on Twitter.
Similarly, these groups are asked to reciprocate by linking their sites back to the Trinity sites.
The College expects that those administering and/or posting to sites that claim a relationship to Trinity College will:
- observe the College's social media guidelines
- obtain permission from the Communications Office before using the College logo or other official identifier on their site.
Use of Personal Accounts
Trinity recognises that your personal social media accounts are your private property and does not require you to engage with the College online (for example by becoming a fan on Facebook, joining a group in LinkedIn, or subscribing to us on Twitter) using your personal accounts.
Should, however, you choose to use your personal accounts to engage with the College online:
- be clear that you offer your individual opinion, not the official opinion of the College
- don’t use College logos or other official identifiers without prior permission from the Communications Office.