Forum Rules

When making a post, please ensure it complies with this site's Main Rules at all times.
    • Staff Notice

    By using this site, you agree to be bound by the following eleven Main Rules as outlined below. If you do not agree with these rules, then use of this site is prohibited to you.

    From time to time, we may update these rules and without any notice to you. Further, you must abide by any announcements or guidelines made by staff or any rules which are made in any specific sections of this site. Staff are clearly labelled and are also listed here.
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    Main Rules

    1. You must be 13 or over to use this site. Under 13s should seek parent's/guardian's permission before posting here.

    2. Do not do anything illegal here, ie, posting threatening, slanderous or defamatory posts, pictures or videos.

    3. Pornography and violent images/videos are not permitted.

    4. Respect other site's copyright at all times.

    5. Abide by staff instructions at all times and do not argue with them. All staff are clearly labelled.

    5. Post in English only and use clear, proper sentences with no "txt" speak.

    6. Do not spam and no dissertations.

    7. You agree that any content you post to this site may be removed, edited or moved at any time and that no warning or reason may be given to you.

    8. By using this site, you accept that your postings are your own and this site accepts no liability for them.

    9. You hereby agree to give the site owners an unconditional licence to do as they wish with the content you post here and you understand that your content maybe used for promotion and marketing of this site.

    10. No proxies/VPNs allowed. Please set an exemption for this site or disable your proxy entirely.

    11. You agree to read the privacy/cookie policy and agree to be bound by it.

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    COMMUNITY GUIDELINES

    Although these guidelines are not as stringent like the main rules above, please try and abide by them as much as possible.

    A. Member Behaviour

    1. Keep it constructive
    Members should engage with one another in a constructive and positive way, but that does not mean that robust discussion on a topic is prohibited, far from it! But if a discussion becomes too heated and/or a thread is being dragged off-topic, then warnings may be issued.

    2. Trolling and Baiting
    Don't post something with the sole intention of winding someone else up or trying to derail a topic. It's obvious to all and can land you in hot water. Also, don't try and provoke a strong reaction from someone with the aim of getting them reported.

    3. Opinions matter
    Forums are a great place for sharing opinions on any given subject, but sometimes some people believe that these opinions must be backed up with proof. This is not an academic site and no member has to prove anything here and if a member keeps demanding that others should provide proof of their opinions/posts, they could be issued with a warning.

    4. Don't ignore and/or argue with staff instructions
    This is already a main rule, but if a staff member asks you to do something or not do something, please abide it. Ignoring staff can result in either a temporary or permanent ban from this site. Staff are clearly labelled as such. Additionally, don't argue with mod decisions within threads. If you are unhappy about something, then create a thread here: Help and Feedback and staff will reply to you.


    B: Forum use

    1. Keep on topic
    Difficult this one, as the natural flow of conversation can ebb and flow, but please try and stick to the subject of the thread. The subject is set by the member who created that thread. The thread creator has a right to complain to staff if they feel their thread is going off-topic or is being derailed by some other means.

    2. Reuse threads
    If a subject is already being covered in an existing thread, then please try and reuse that thread. How will you know if a thread already exists? Just do a search, but sometimes these threads can easily be identified because they are pinned at the top of forum lists and are sometimes labelled as "Super Topics".

    Multiple threads on the same subject may get deleted, especially in the news forum.


    4. News links
    When creating threads or posting about something happening in the news, please post a link to that story, so that other members can read the background details on the story. Please use BBC links where possible or links from other free sites. Avoid linking to sites behind a paywall which require a subscription to read.

    C: Use of Account

    1. Usernames, Avatars, Profile pictures/banners and Signatures.
    Do not use pornographic or other objectionable material such as nazi symbols and words. Also, don't use swear words or pejorative, insulting or argumentative terms, ie don't choose words like "idiot" as that may result in yourself getting abused from other members.

    2. Use one account
    Members are not permitted to have more than one account. If you wish to change your username, please contact a member of staff. If you have not used your account after two years, it will get deleted and you will need to create a new one if you wish to use this site again.

    D: Warning and Reporting system

    1. Warnings
    Generally, most situations are dealt with by an informal warning being posted in the thread where a problem is occurring. Sometimes, members might get named as part of that warning. Everyone should heed the warning and abide by the instruction given by the staff member immediately.

    If these warnings are ignored, members may be suspended from the site or, in rare cases, banned entirely.

    All warnings are logged against the member's account.

    2. Reporting illegal posts
    If members see illegal content in a post, they should report that post immediately using the Report function, which is located at the bottom right of every post - it's the triangle button with the exclamation mark inside.

    The reporting function is only for reporting illegal/unwanted content such as spam, porn etc. If members have some other issue with a post or another member, they should create a thread in the Help and Feedback forum and staff will reply to you.

    Using the Report function for anything other than reporting illegal/unwanted content, could result in a member being suspended from the site.

    Edited 3 times, last by Horizon: A few tweaks, mainly changing friendly to constructive in the member behaviour rules. (June 28, 2021 at 11:26 PM).

  • Horizon June 22, 2021 at 10:08 AM

    Changed the title of the thread from “Posting guidelines - Please read” to “Forum Rules”.
  • A few changes to the rules:

    In rule 5 of the main rules, the following text has been added: All staff instructions are written in blue text.

    In rule A4, the reference to the feedback forum being private has been removed. This is now a public forum.

    A new rule in the final section on the reporting system has been added.

  • A few changes:

    In rule 5, the line referring to staff writing in blue text has been removed and changed to staff are clearly labelled.

    In A1, all references to insults has been removed, as this is causing confusion.

  • Added the no proxy rule as a main rule now. And made clear the difference between what are now called the Main rules and Community Guidelines.

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