Forum acceptable user policy

[smilodon]

From here

The Dead Men Walking community is continuing to grow and it seems appropriate to remind people of what is considered acceptable on these forums.

The community is *inclusive*. This means that you should not post anything that is likely to offend other members of the forums. We leave it to you to decide where the boundaries lie, but please remember that the most common faux pas tend be be related to race, religion or sexual preference.

We appreciate that by its very nature the 'Laugh? I nearly started...' & 'Look what I found on the internet' sections may come closest to veering across the acceptability line, but let's try to keep it on the straight and narrow if we can. We do have members who are under the age of 18. If you post any material or links to material that uses language that would fail the forums language filter, then please make sure to clearly highlight that fact in your post. Also note that the forum does not allow links to pornographic sites or material. Milder stuff that includes topless images or 'Page3' style material is allowed, but again make sure you describe the nature of the content you are linking to. Use common sense and if in doubt include a disclaimer.

Please also remember that the forums and bandwidth that make up our community is provided by our kind hosts, Brightstar. Current UK law suggests the Owners of our hosting company, the Board Administrators and Forum Moderators could, under certain circumstances, be held legally liable for comments posted on this bulletin board. So let's not post anything that will get them sued, ok?

Therefore it is important that forum members refrain from making posts that:

• Promote, or appear to promote, the use, creation, copying or distribution of illegal copies of any  film or music media.
• Offer suggestions or guidance in the use, creation , copying or distribution of illegal film, music or software media.
• Request help or guidance in the  use, creation , copying or distribution of illegal film, music or software media.
• Provide links to web sites, forums, peer to peer networks or newsgroups etc. that promote the creation , copying or distribution of illegal film, music or software media.
• Provide links to sexual content not suitable for general public consumption

General comments and discussion related to the issues surrounding illegal film, music or software media are obviously acceptable. Common sense should be a good guide as to what to post, but any postings that fall into the above categories will be deleted by the Moderators. Further action may be taken by The Administrators against persistent offenders. In order to ensure that the Dead Men Talking forum remains within legal guidelines existing posts or parts of existing posts that conflict with the above rules have been deleted.

Defamation (definition: Act of injuring another's reputation by any slanderous communication, written or oral; the wrong of maliciously injuring the good name of another)

You may wish to make a critical post on this forum related to companies, people or organisations that you have had unhappy or unsatisfactory dealings with. For example you may have placed an order with Company X for goods that never arrived. It can be illegal if your criticism veers away from fact. For example saying " I bought a widget from Company X and it took a month to arrive and when it did it was broken. I think Company X are a dreadful bunch and would suggest you never do business with them ever" is perfectly fine. However saying "Company X stole my money and are all complete crooks!" is defamation and possibly libellous. It could get both you and the administrators of this forum into serious legal trouble. Make sure you stick to expressing your opinion rather than making statements of fact you cannot substantiate.

Finally, please try to resist the temptation to make regular one-smilie replies (we acknowledge that the Laugh section is a little different). The forums are here for you to read and reply - it is incredibly frustrating to go to thread after thread after thread to *read* a topic that looks of interest just to see another one-avatar reply that adds nothing to the community. If it doesn't add value then please don't add the post - we will all be better off as a result. Just apply common sense when you post a reply please.

Thank you.

The Admins.

[Jabbs]

Read, digested and understood. Thanks.