Acceptable use

Last updated: 18 September 2026

OurHub is a noticeboard for towns. What goes on it is read by the whole town, children included, and most of it is written by volunteers on a weeknight. This page says, in plain words, what cannot go on it, how we check, and what happens when something has to come down. It is part of our terms of service; by publishing on OurHub you agree to it.

What we take down straight away

These are not judgement calls. If it is one of these, it comes off the public site the moment it is found, and the people who run the site are told why.

Sexual content involving a child, in any form, or anything that sexualises a child.
Threats of violence, encouraging violence, or instructions for hurting people: weapons, explosives, poisons, ways of self-harm.
Publishing a private person's home address, phone number, workplace or movements to expose or target them.
Hate aimed at people for their race, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexuality, gender identity, disability or age; slurs used as attacks.
Scams, phishing, fake fundraising, or asking for bank details or passwords under false pretences.
Pretending to be an emergency service, a council, a government agency or the police; a fake official warning.
Pornography or sexual content of any kind: this is a family noticeboard.
Selling or promoting illegal drugs or weapons.
Content that is plainly there to harass or humiliate a named private person.

What a person looks at

Some things are not clear-cut. These stay up while a real person at OurHub reads them, usually within a business day:

Accusations about a named person or business, stated as fact, that could be defamatory: that they broke the law, cheated someone, or are not fit to do their job.
A personal dispute aired in public: a neighbour, a former committee member, a tradesperson.
Medical, legal or financial advice presented as authoritative.
Fundraising that does not say who is running it or where the money goes.
Material that looks copied wholesale from a newspaper, a book or another website.
A group notice that borrows the words or look of an official warning without coming from an agency.
Election material that may need an authorisation it does not carry.

What is fine

Ordinary community life. Meeting notices, working bees, the fete, a fundraiser by a named group. Opinions, robust debate, criticism of the council and of public figures. Fires, floods and deaths, reported as they are. A club function with a bar. Hunting and fishing clubs. Church teaching. A business saying it is the best in town and what it charges. Nobody is marked down for being blunt, unpolished or badly spelt.

How it is checked

Publishing on OurHub is instant: a hall committee posting that the road is under water cannot wait on a review. Instead, everything published or edited on a public page, post, event, listing or notice is read within seconds afterwards by an automated checker against the list above. Three things can happen:

Nothing. Almost always. The checker keeps no record of what it cleared.
A person looks. The content stays up and lands with a real person at OurHub, who decides. If they take it down, the people who run the site are told why.
It comes down. Only for the first list. The content is unpublished at once (it stays in your admin as a draft, nothing is deleted), the site's owners get an email saying what and why, and a person at OurHub reviews the checker's call. If the checker was wrong, we put it back and say so.

Anyone reading a site can also report something with the Report a problem link at the bottom of every page. Reports are read by a person, not a machine.

When something is taken down

You are told by email what came down, why, and how to reply. Reply to that email and a person will look at it, usually within a business day.
If it was an honest mistake on your side, edit it and publish again.
If you think the call was wrong, say so. We check the checker; we do not assume it was right.
Two takedowns and the site is suspended: it stays readable but nothing on it can be changed or published until we have spoken with you. A wrong takedown we reversed does not count.
For the illegal, we may also have to tell the police. We would rather never have to.

Who decides

The checker is a machine reading a written policy: this page, in fuller form. Every takedown is reviewed by a person at OurHub, and every review decision is made by one. Nothing is decided by a machine alone. Questions and appeals: hello@ourhub.au.