Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

  1. What is The Gold Coast Torch?
  • The Gold Coast Torch is an independent media publishing platform dedicated to delivering community-based news and crime alerts to residents of the Gold Coast, covering over 50 local suburbs. Our goal is to keep the community informed and engaged by sharing relevant information and encouraging local discussions.
  1. How can I submit a news tip or story?
  • We welcome news tips from our community! You can post a story for free by joining the Gold Coast Crime - The Gold Coast Torch Facebook Group. If you want a more effective approach, you can choose to have your story posted on our Facebook Page and website. If you want to get a story posted to the page and website, you can only submit a tip by emailing us. Please note that direct contact with us is a feature only supported by a paid membership. Once you have a paid membership, you gain access to our email address where you must provide as much detail as possible, including relevant facts, images, videos and contact information, so we can follow up if necessary.
  1. How can I join or contribute to the community?
  • To join our Facebook groups, simply search for "Gold Coast Crime - The Gold Coast Torch" on Facebook and request to join. After you've done that, follow and like our Facebook Page here: The Gold Coast Torch // Once you’re up to scratch, feel free to contribute by sharing news, commenting on posts, and engaging with other members. We encourage respectful and constructive discussions!
  1. Why was my post not approved?
  • Posts on social media may not be approved for various reasons, including violations of our community guidelines, inappropriate content, lack of information, or lack of relevance to the group’s focus. Your post might also be declined if we have reason to believe the post will not perform. We strive to maintain a safe and informative environment, so please review our guidelines before posting. This may be done through automated and manual approval/rejection techniques.
  1. How do I advertise on your platform?
  • We like to keep advertising at a minimum to maintain the group's focus and not dilute the quality of the content by drowning important posts in spam. If you’re interested in advertising with us, please reach out to us. We offer subtly unique advertising options to fit your needs, and we’d be happy to discuss how we can help promote your business or service to our community.
  1. How do I report an issue or concern?
  • If you encounter any issues or have concerns about content in our groups or on our websites, please contact us at via email. We take all reports seriously and will investigate any issues promptly.
  1. What types of content are not allowed in the group?
  • We do not allow content that is abusive, defamatory, obscene, or otherwise harmful. This includes hate speech, personal attacks, and misinformation. Our goal is to foster a respectful and informative community, so please adhere to our guidelines when posting.
  1. What is the privacy policy regarding my data?
  • Your privacy is important to us. We collect and use your personal information in accordance with our Privacy Policy, which details how we handle your data. You can view our full Privacy Policy here. If you have any specific questions about your data, please feel free to reach out.
  1. Why does it cost a monthly fee to join the community on your website?
  • Our Facebook Groups alone require a lot of manual work to filter out all the spam, promotion and fake accounts. Although, scammers often find a way around our rules and regulations. This means we must manually monitor posts to remove comments and ban trouble-makers on our groups and pages. This takes a lot of work, but ensures our platforms are a great experience for everyone. We do this completely free of charge. Our social media groups are slightly-less regulated than the platforms we own, and the posts can vary tremendously. If members want more curated content to browse, with the most important news to their inbox, they can pay for that through our monthly subscription. It only costs a small price to get accurate, high-quality journalism that reports exclusively on Gold Coast news and issues. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. It's free from bias, ads, spam, red tape, politics and irrelevant content. We champion freedom of speech and ensure all posts are noteworthy. We aren't here to waste your time, and we look out for you. We are your voice, and aim to create positive change to our city through our community.
  1. Why does it cost to access all of the content, when it's free on other places like social media and TV?
  • We often hear this argument from people that are skeptical about our new technology. It seems like a fair question on the surface level, but the truth is, there are multiple reasons why. Firstly, social media and television have ads embedded in user's feeds/T.V screens, and they charge you for their service in a different way: your time and attention. Let's break it down for you (for social media, anyway). The average person spends 1-4 hours per day scrolling on social media (obviously for the younger demographic, it's more). If we take someone who scrolls on social media for 2 hours/day, they are exposed to 1 ad per minute, or 120 ads in a 2 hour time period. If the cost for the advertiser is $25 per 1000 impressions, then the user will be consuming around $3-$5 worth of ads every 2 hours for social media alone (minimum). Our platform is $5 per month for founding members. Notice the difference? This can be a difficult concept/perspective to grasp. Instead of offering this type of advertising where you have irrelevant junk clogging up your feed or screens, we operate in a way where you are paying directly for the service, without the ads. Additionally, we are run by the people. This means there is an entrance for everyone who wants to get their voice heard, and their story seen. You don't get this with traditional media and TV. We also offer highly-curated, hyperlocal content, that exclusively reports on Gold Coast news. Some locals don't care about Margot Robbie walking the red carpet in the United States... they would rather know why 5 police cars were parked at the neighbours house last night. Why? Because that's local news that actually impacts them.
  1. Where does the money made through subscriptions go?
  • Money earned through subscriptions goes into maintaining the website, ongoing e-commerce costs, promotion of the page and making sure it's the go-to platform for everything Gold Coast. As it stands, nobody from Torch Corp is making a cent, as every dollar is reinvested into marketing through social media and offline promotional activities. We promote our platform on social media because the more engagement and members we have on our platforms, the more eyes we have on the stories. The more eyes we have on our stories – the better the outcomes are for our community.
  1. What is the difference between The Gold Coast Torch and traditional news media outlets?
  • Our platform was created to bring the community together, not to divide them. At times, it feels like the media, government, police and the justice system fails the people of Australia. We work tirelessly to ensure everyone in the community has their voice heard, and their story seen. That is where The Gold Coast Torch shines. Our goal is to keep the community informed and engaged by sharing relevant information and encouraging local discussions. We are built on the foundations of accountability, reality and truth, along with transparency and fairness. We have no hidden agenda, and we are proudly partisan, meaning we don't engage in politics. Additionally, whilst mainstream media outlets are owned by multi-national conglomerates driven by profit, we are strictly independent, and driven by the people. Also, when you tune into traditional media, there are allocated times to watch it. With TGCT, you can check out the content any time, any place, with the touch of a button.
  1. What happens if I make a post in Gold Coast Crime - The Gold Coast Torch, and it doesn't get good engagement or any results?
  • Engagement depends on the details of your event, and how you portray them in your story and post. For example, if you had a $300 bicycle stolen from your backyard, and don't have anything except a blurry screenshot of the bike from a random day, along with minimum details in your description, it'll probably only reach a few thousand people. On the other hand, if you have someone who managed to steal your $200,000 caravan from your driveway, using his a minivan to tow it, and you have the entire event playing out on clear CCTV footage, along with a detailed description of the time, place and offender, it will get a lot more organic engagement. Don't be lazy with your posts and expect a miracle. The more time and effort you put in, the better the results will be.
  1. What happens if I'm desperate to promote a post/event/story to maximise reach?
  • If you want a post to be seen by as many people as possible, you may consider 'boosting' your post on our Facebook Page. Whilst group posts cannot be 'boosted' (Gold Coast Crime - The Gold Coast Torch), we can make a post on our Facebook Page (The Gold Coast Torch), which is available for our paid members. They can do so by paying us a retainer fee, and from there, only the advertising costs from Meta. Non-members can also get a post feature on our Facebook Page, but this cost is a higher retainer fee + Meta's advertising costs. You can see a further breakdown of the costs associated with paid advertising here.
  1. What's the difference between consuming content on social media and content via email and the website?
  • Whilst locals can still consume and engage with this content for free via the groups on social media, 'Facebook Groups' are not Facebook's sole purpose – which means they have very limited features and functionalities. Firstly, it can be incredibly difficult for members to see and engage with posts. Social media in general has become increasingly difficult to navigate among so much content, so TGCT posts can easily get lost within other posts from your friends, businesses and other pages. Secondly, social media has some serious red tape, which prevents and restricts the group from posting about certain things and often protects alleged criminals due to their strict rules, regulations and policies. They frequently take down posts from the group and even suspend the group if they suspect we have made the 'wrong' decision. Thirdly, there is a constant issue of people cross-posting to multiple groups and pages. They attempt to post their story on all the different crime groups they can find in the area (there is a lot of them). Whilst it may partially increase outreach, we took it upon ourselves to become the market leader. There are many crime groups that have no reach, no moderation and no activity – they're dead. The Gold Coast Torch has a dedicated founder, that is pushing to get results for the people, so they don't need to cross-post to multiple groups or pages.
  1. Are you owned by Seven, Nine or Newscorp?
  • We are an independent publication. This means that we have no ties to any company or political group, and we aren't owned by multinational conglomerates. We do not receive any external funding outside of our local members – we are owned and operated by the people of the Gold Coast. All our stories are based on accountability, reality and truth (ART). The Gold Coast Torch cuts through the noise and bureaucracy online, and connects real locals residing on the Gold Coast. Subscribing to our platform means you get the real story as it breaks, directly from the source. Without any filters or edits – we do our best to report the facts. We want to hold those causing harm in the community accountable, so there is a reduction in the crime rate on the Gold Coast.
  1. Are there some topics that you don't report on?
  • We aim to report on local news, along with petty, small and mid-level crime, and believe that it's not in our best interests (or our members' best interests) to report or cover stories on:
    • High-level, organised crime (drug trafficking etc.)
    • High-level, gang-related crime and bikies
    • Domestic violence/family violence (unless specific circumstances are met)
    • Relationships/partners/highly personal relations matters (unless the offender is a serial criminal with more than 3 serious victims, and concrete evidence to back claims).
    • Suicide
    • Murder (that's still under investigation)