Forum Rules

Welcome to the UK Column Community Forum

Please read the following before you post on the site.

You are free to discuss anything of interest, but we ask that you show respect for each other, and for the forum moderators who volunteer their time to make sure the discussion remains civil.

We encourage lively debate, are extremely keen to encourage posting of evidence based research, and encourage you to use the connections you make online here to build connections offline as well.

How to use the forum

We appreciate that there are varying levels of technical ability amongst our members, so your first port of call, if you are uncertain how to use this website, is the How do I ... section of the site.

Here you will find how-to tutorials for the most common tasks.

If you have a question which is not answered there, or you have any suggestions for improvements, please post them in the Questions and Suggestions forum.

Rules and Etiquette

By posting on the UK Column forums you demonstrate your acceptance of the forum rules below.

General

  • Please use the Forum Search function before you post. There is a chance that your topic may have been posted by another member. This rule is intended to minimise the risk of duplicate posts.
  • Take the time to place your post in the appropriate forum category in order to minimise the workload for moderators. Please respect the fact that they volunteer their own free time to maintain these forums and have families and other commitments too.
  • When starting a new thread, it is best practice for the thread title to give other forum users a clue as to the content of the thread. For example, thread titles such as ‘Look at this’ or ‘Great video must watch’ will be unapproved by the moderators until a proper title is agreed, at which time the thread will be reinstated.
  • When you create a thread or reply to a thread, please don’t just post a link to an article or a video without at least providing a concise summary of what you’ve learned and why you think it important that other forum members take the time to read / watch.
  • Never go off the original thread topic (to avoid confusing the discussion) – simply start a new topic.
  • Forum members should not deliberately make false or misleading posts.

Treatment of Others

  • This is a place for open and free discussion, but it has always been the policy that personal attacks are unacceptable.
  • In the event that the conversation on a specific thread is becoming heated or ‘off-topic’ the moderators may use their discretion to either a) temporarily or b) permanently lock that discussion thread.

Racism

  • Members are welcome to discuss issues surrounding race and immigration. However racist remarks will not be tolerated. Political positions can be taken without resorting to racial stereotyping or abusive comments.

Incitement

  • We will not permit any comment which could be perceived to be an incitement to violence on our platform. (If any future posts of this nature come to the attention of the forum moderators they will be deleted without notice).

Pornographic Content

  • Pornographic content/links are prohibited.

Copyright

  • The copying and pasting of another author’s work in its entirety is prohibited due to the potential of claims for breach of copyright.
  • If you do quote short written extracts for the purpose of adding your own comments / observations, please ensure you use the ‘quote’ button on the text editor. This will make the quoted work distinct from your own contribution.
  • You are also required to provide a link back to the source so that readers can access the original work.
  • The only exception to this is when you have obtained the written permission of the copyright holder to post their work on the UK Column Community forum. Even when permission has been granted, you must obtain written permission from the moderators before posting it.

Photographs

  • Whereas short text extracts may be posted to this site, as described above, under the “fair dealing” exemption of UK Copyright legislation, there is no similar exemption for photographs.
  • For that reason, uploading any photograph to the forums is absolutely prohibited unless it has been made available under a Creative Commons licence, or is in the public domain.
  • If you are uploading a CC or public domain image to the site, please make sure you give clear attribution by following the Creative Commons Best Practices guidelines.

Groups

  • In addition to publicly readable forums, the UK Column Community website also provides the facility to create your own “group”.
  • This could be a topic based discussion group, or a geographically based group.
  • Groups can be publicly viewable or private.
  • Groups are subject to the same rules as the rest of the forum, and although private groups are not viewable by non-group members, they are viewable by UK Column staff. Should we become aware of incidences of racism or incitement to violence, the group will be closed.

Live Chat

  • The main live video page, and (optionally) groups, have an online chat facility.
  • Chat is subject to the same rules as the rest of the forum, however, because it is often fast moving, live moderation of the chat is not possible.
  • Members have the facility to ‘ignore’ other chat participants, which provides for some self-managed moderation in that posts made by ignored members will not be seen.
  • Any member who prefers not to use the ‘ignore’ facility may still bring chat posts to the attention of the moderators.

Private Messages

  • Private messages allow members to communicate privately without exposing email addresses to other members. The private messaging system is subject to the same rules as the rest of the forum.
  • Please do not post content from private messages on the forums, in groups, or in the chat at any time without the prior written permission of all parties.
  • If you feel a private message has broken the rules and you wish to bring it to the attention of UK Column staff, please use the ‘Flag as abuse’ link at the right hand side of the message content.
  • If a member flags a private message as abusive, UK Column staff will be able to access the whole message conversation. This is the only circumstance that UK Column staff will be able to access the private message system, and that access is limited to the message conversation flagged as abusive.
  • The private messaging system should not be used to share sensitive information with others.

Avatars, Cover Images, Profile Info and Signatures

  • Any user using an unsuitable avatar, cover image or signature (unnecessarily rude, pornographic or insulting to other members) will be asked to remove it. A moderator may remove an avatar and/or signature at any time if noticed and deemed necessary.

Disputes with Other Members

  • Like any forum, disputes will happen.
  • If you have a grievance or you are concerned about the behaviour of another forum user, please notify the forum moderators by private message and give full reasons / justification. Under no circumstances are such grievances to be posted on the public open forums.
  • In any dispute between members, the forum moderator’s decision is final.

Disputes with Moderators

  • If you have a complaint against a moderator or you feel you have been unfairly treated by a moderator, you are free to bring the matter to the attention of the other moderators by private message, who will work with you to try to find a resolution.
  • Moderation issues may not be the topic of thread discussions, no matter how strongly you feel about a moderator decision. It is almost always the case that the general membership does not have the full picture of events, and will therefore draw the wrong conclusions.
  • The moderators are not permitted to discuss such matters on the forum threads.

Rule Breaches

Moderators will normally communicate with a member who has broken forum rules before taking action, to explain the breach and remind the person concerned of the rules. Three forms of notice may be given by private message and these include:

  • Moderator notice – In the first instance this is used to provide the post author with the reasons for moderation activity. It also provides an opportunity for the forum user to ‘raise a defence’.
  • Moderator’s warning – Will be issued in circumstances where despite a moderator’s notice a member continues to disrupt the forum and breach forum rules.
  • Moderators final warning – Repeat infringers of forum rules will be reminded that forum posting privileges will be withdrawn, either temporarily or permanently, if they repeat the offending behaviour.

The following is a non-exhaustive list of reasons for which you may receive such a notice:

  • Insulting other members
  • Posting copyrighted material
  • Posting pornography
  • Inciting violence
  • Posting advertisements
  • Racism
  • Criticising moderation on the forum
  • Threatening another member (including a moderator)
  • Overtly aggressive/argumentative behaviour