Thread by @darraghdoyle

I made the wrong decision this week in the choice of @ireland curator.

I also made a poor decision in not closing out the week earlier.

In the following tweets I'll tell you what happened, what will changed and what I'll do about it.

Firstly, when every person applies for the account, they get an email with the following in it, to tell them what to expect on the account if their application is successful.

Please note the point about replies and engagement.

Again, this is before they take the account.

Another part of that email that I've shared already this week was added in February and deals with disclosure about affiliations, however slight, to any groups, political or grassroots campaigning about the 8th Amendment.

It also advises that personal accounts are being checked

This, again, is the email received by all applicants that I've replied to since February 2018.

After this advisory email, people are asked if they'd like to proceed.

They're given the choice to take it or not.

When last week's curator decided to go ahead with the application, she got a very very long, detailed email - as is sent to all potential curators about what is expected on the account, what's acceptable, what's appropriate and when it's okay not to engage, reply or interact.

Potential curators are specifically asked to make time to reply to tweets and engage with followers, when possible, when appropriate and when reasonable.

I don't expect them to reply to everything. I expect them to at least reply to some things.

In addition, each potential curator, before they take the account is asked to agree to the following guidelines. I'll draw your attention in particular to points 6, 8, 9, 11 and the last point about deleting tweets.

They agree to this before they take the account as Siobhan did

In addition, they also agree to this part of the email which is specifically about explicit imagery. While that is open to interpretation, I think there's a fairly common sense approach to what might be suitable or not.

All curators, including Siobhán, confirmed their acceptance

I wish to state, at this stage:

I AM VERY HAPPY FOR ANY COMMUNICATION I'VE HAD WITH SIOBHÁN, EITHER EMAIL, TWEET, DM OR WHATSAPP MESSAGES TO BE PUBLISHED.

I tried my best to be accommodating, reasonable and kind this week. I really don't feel I could have done more.

As anyone who reads my timelime from the past week can see, I have attempted many many many times to have Siobhán engage and reply to tweets.

I did this by email, DM, WhatsApp and phonecall. I made it a condition of continuing with the account.

This was not done as requested.

I went as far as choosing qs to be replied to because I saw how busy the account was.

I tried to pick as many reasonable, appropriate and challenging questions as I thought reasonable. There was not an unrealistic amount.

This was a condition of continuing.

Siobhán agreed.

I checked the account at 14:37 today. The last response to someone had been at 7.12pm yesterday. In total I counted less than 40 interactions, engagements or replies to people on the account for the week.

This did not meet the agreed criteria.

I do feel Siobhán should have disclosed her employment to me both on application and when asked about any affiliations, however slight, to groups campaigning.

Again, here is what she agreed to on her application.

When I found out where she worked, I should have closed the week.

If I had known beforehand, I'd have advised her that the @ireland account wouldn't be appropriate, because of the reaction people would have had. I knew what the reaction would be and would have advised so.

When I found out thanks to @thetimesIE investigative work, I immediately contacted Siobhán firstly to verify, secondly to advise the reaction when people found out and thirdly to say it would not be worth it. I was extremely direct about this.

Siobhán asked to stay.

I obviously knew that @thetimesIE story would break and I advised Siobhán to step away from the account. I offered to take any flack.

Siobhán asked to be allowed reply to questions about her employment. I reluctantly agreed, as I thought I'd like that option if it were me.

I was wrong in allowing it to continue. I should have stopped the week for Siobhán's own sake. The intensity and challenging nature of replies and tweets to and about her on the account was as I had predicted and worse.

I was checking in with Siobhán every hour.

I have checked in with Siobhán pretty much twice a day since she began to make sure she was okay, to make sure she was taking breaks, not too upset, eating, drinking, resting.

I really had empathy as I knew the account was overwhelming.

She asked to continue.

On addition, I asked for less statements from the account and more personal tweets - less sounding like a bot and more "in my opinion" or "in my experience" but these didn't emerge.

Simply, the @ireland account wasn't right for Siobhán and vice versa.

I did not choose properly

At 14:37 today I informed Siobhán by email that I was closing the week.

Again, she had agreed before I took the account I could do this, plusthe agreement we had made simoly wasn't followed.

Attached again- the t&c agreed to and the email sent.

I got no reply.

Some 45 minutes later at approximately 15:32 an explicit image was tweeted from the account, despite an agreement not to do so.

That part of the agreement email attached again.

If I hadn't made the decision before, that was the last straw.

It was a deliberate provocation.

Taking into account

- RTs from anonymous accounts (people are advised not to for the most part),
- from accounts with very extreme views, to say the least
- The non disclosure of affiliations
- the mostly non reply, non engagement, non involved week

I am happy with my decision

I really hope Siobhán is okay, is not upset by this decision and is supported by those around her if he needs it.

She was not experienced enough on twitter for the @ireland account and I wish I'd been more strict both in my choice and my advice.

I wish her well.

Next week, @RuthieFizz kicks off what I'm pretty sure is her campaign to become President and the week after is a pro-choice, pro-repeal, pro #repealth8th person who I personally think is brilliant.

Thank you for reading. Your feedback is welcome.