1. Forum Rules

1.1

Posts are to be made in the relevant forum. Users are asked to read the forum descriptions before posting.

1.2

Members should post in a way that is respectful of other users. Flaming (what's 'flaming') or abusing users in any way will not be tolerated and will lead to a warning.

1.3

Members are asked not to act as “back seat moderators”. If members note an issue which contravenes something in this policy document they are welcome to bring it to the attention of a member of the Moderator Team. Please use the “post report” feature to report posts. Do not respond to such topics yourself. Members who constantly “act” as moderators may be warned.

1.4

Members should remember this board is aimed at a general audience. Posting pornographic, racist or generally offensive text, images, links, etc. will not be tolerated and will lead to a banning.

1.5

Members are asked to respect the copyright of other users, sites, media, etc., re-printing material without permission will receive a warning and their post will be removed.

1.6

Members should respect the bandwidth of other users and sites. The use of inline ([IMG][/IMG]) image tags pointing to data stored on third party systems, for which the user has not received permission to link, may be removed.

1.7

Members should post in a way which is consistent with "normal writing". That is users should not post excessive numbers of emoticons, large, small or coloured text, etc. Similarly users should not SHOUT (by using capitals) or use excessive punctuation (e.g. ! and ?) in topic titles or posts. Users consistently abusing this will be warned.

1.8

Members should use an appropriate, descriptive title when posting a new topic. Examples of bad titles include; "Help me!", "I'm stuck!", "I have a question!", etc. Examples of good titles include; "Today was a good day", "Want to recommend this book", etc.

1.9

Spam is not tolerated under any circumstance. This includes offering services (charged and free), installation services, solicitation etc. Recruiting members for your own projects is considered spam. Users posting spam will be warned and their post removed. Definition of spam is at Admin Team's discretion. If you are unsure of a link you have posted, please courteously seek approval.

1.10

The moderating, support and other teams reserve the right to edit or remove any 'offensive' post at any time. The determination of what is construed as 'offensive' (rude, indecent, vulgar, racist, spam, etc.) is decided by Team Members and not users.

1.11

The above forum rules where applicable also apply to private messaging. Abuse of the private messaging system may lead to warnings and/or the revocation of private messaging.

1.12

Placing photos is accepted on our forum, but please take care not to cause offence.

Please do not place images of the police whether they are on duty or not on our forum. Especially do not place images of any arrests or anything that may infringe on civil liberties.

We wouldn't encourge images of grandchildren or other young children. Bad people can view this forum as well as good people - this forum can be from accessed anywhere in the world.

1.13

When recommending a businesses or service to the forum, please seek the approval of the owner of the business or service before posting any of their contact details to the forum. Please also ensure that the business you recommend follows the Laws of the United Kingdom, especially with regards to Health and Safety, Human Rights and other important laws.

2. Signatures

2.1

Signatures may contain up to five lines of text (of small or normal size) and/or one image, valid combinations include; a single image of no more than 75px high, 468px wide and 6kB (6000 Bytes) in size. Signatures containing an image this large, may also include one line of small size text. Signatures containing an image of 30px high may include up to three lines of small size text or two lines of normal size text. Images of 15px height or less may allow up to three lines of normal size text or four lines of small size text. Animated images are not allowed.

2.2

Text sizes should be between 75% and 100% (small and normal). Text in signatures is subject to the same conditions as posts with respect decency, copyright, emotions, and so forth.

2.3

Admin Team members are allowed links for rendering support for the Forum. Linked sites may be commercial in nature. You may not include links in a way which suggests you offer official support, services, etc. for Grandparentslove.co.uk. You may not link to copyright, porn, political, racist or other similar hate sites. Links are included in signature size limits.

2.4

Users abusing these rules will be warned or banned.

3. Avatars

3.1

Users are permitted to utilise a gallery avatar or to link to one of their own (subject to previous points on misuse of bandwidth). User defined avatars are to be no larger than 100 pixels square, contain no image which attempts to portray the user as having an official status (e.g. mimicking ranks or copying avatars of team members), may not exceed 6kB (80000 Bytes) in filesize and have a consistently high availability (i.e. links to images on slow servers or those prone to failure may be removed).

3.2

Avatars are subject to the same conditions as posts with respect decency, and so forth.

3.3

Users abusing these rules will be warned and/or may lose their avatar privileges.

3. Policing

3.1

Grandparentslove.co.uk operates a three strike policy. Users will be warned a maximum of three times for contravening forum rules. Banning will be at the discretion of the Admin Team.

3.2

Arguing with moderators after having received a warning will lead to an immediate additional warning. Should this exceed three strikes a temporary ban will be put in place as above.

3.3

Users who feel they have been unfairly warned are welcome to contact the Site Owner. If the Site Owner feels they were treated badly they could remove a warning.

3.4

Any attempt to circumvent a temporary ban will lead to that ban being made permanent. Circumvention includes re-registering under a non-banned username, changing IP addresses to evade an IP ban, registering a new email account or evade an email ban. Circumvention includes posting as an anonymous user.

3.5

An exception to the three strike rule applies when users contact Moderators personally (via any method) and post insulting, indecent or vulgar material. Such users may be subject to an immediate permanent ban.

3.6

Permanent bans are a last resort and thought is given before implementing them. While Grandparentslove.co.uk may consider lifting permanent bans.