The Study Society Archive/Forum - Registration

The reason for the rules
The Study Society Forum has been designed to allow lively and constructive debate of issues relating to the interests of the Society and its members. By maintaining a user account and by posting to these forums, you hereby agree to abide by these rules.

Please note that these rules exist for your own protection and to ensure that the forum remains a friendly, safe and supportive environment for all users. To that end, members are asked to be vigilant and to report any breaches of these rules to a member of our moderation team. To do this press the little triangle with an exclamation mark above the post.

Stay safe online
The safety of our members is our number one priority. Protect your privacy and stay safe online by following these simple guidelines:
1. Don't give out detailed information about yourself, such as your age, your telephone or mobile number or your home address even if people ask for it.
2. The only name you should give out on the forums is your registered username or your first name. Don't post your email address on the forums.
3. Be careful who you trust online and don't believe everything people tell you. If all you can see is the words they are typing, you can't be 100% sure that they're who they say they are.
4. Meeting someone you have only been in touch with online can be dangerous.

The Rules
By accessing “The Study Society Archive/Forum” (hereinafter “we”, “us”, “our”, “The Study Society Archive/Forum”), you agree to be legally bound by the following terms. If you do not agree to be legally bound by all of the following terms then please do not access and/or use “The Study Society Archive/Forum”. We may change these at any time and we’ll do our utmost in informing you, though it would be prudent to review this regularly yourself as your continued usage of “The Study Society Archive/Forum” after changes mean you agree to be legally bound by these terms as they are updated and/or amended.

You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-orientated or any other material that may violate any laws be it of your country, the country where “The Study Society Archive/Forum” is hosted or International Law. Doing so may lead to you being immediately and permanently banned, with notification of your Internet Service Provider if deemed required by us. The IP address of all posts are recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. You agree that “The Study Society Archive/Forum” have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic at any time should we see fit. As a user you agree to any information you have entered to being stored in a database. While this information will not be disclosed to any third party without your consent, neither “The Study Society Archive/Forum” nor phpBB shall be held responsible for any hacking attempt that may lead to the data being compromised.

Standards of behaviour
As in all communities, there is room for disagreement and debate. Contentiousness, criticism, or insulting, hurtful or rude behaviour will not be tolerated, and members are expected to use courtesy in their exchanges on the forum. Trolling is prohibited. (A troll is someone who posts controversial, inflammatory, irrelevant or off-topic messages in an online discussion forum with the primary intent of provoking other users into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal discussion.)

Public disputes
Problems and disputes arising from use of the forum system should be reported directly to an administrator or moderator as appropriate; subsequent discussions should be handled privately between the member and the moderator handling the problem. The forums must not be used for personal disputes or agenda, to plead a case or to “tell one’s side of the story”. Disputes between members or between a member and the forum management should be dealt with via personal message or e-mails. Topics initiated or posts made anywhere to plead a case will be moderated. Public continuance of disputes by members may result in administrative action.

Prohibited topics and material
Posts (or nicknames, avatars and signatures) intended to demean any person or group are prohibited. Images containing scenes of gratuitous graphic violence or adult themes will not be allowed. Posts or links depicting pornographic, indecent, obscene, or any other improper material will be removed without notice. Posts of a political, cultural or divisive nature will be heavily moderated. This forum is not a sounding board for pushing political, cultural or religious agendas, nor is it intended for distribution of sexual materials.

Posts which contain unauthorized, illegal, or otherwise improper use of any material (images or narrative text) which are clearly not the property of the poster will be removed by moderators, and we reserve the right to ban users who regularly violate this restriction. Note that brief quotes of materials from others is not considered improper, as long as proper attribution is made.

Commercial postings
Advertisements for commercial purposes are not allowed. Excessively or inappropriately mentioning or plugging a commercial service or a retail outlet is prohibited.

Off subject posts and topics
Discussion in each forum should be restricted to the subject covered by that forum. Within a topic, posts should be restricted to the subject of that topic. To start discussing a new subject, you need to start a new topic in the appropriate forum.

The Café forum
The Café forum is where users can gather to chat about almost anything. Sharing personal experiences in the Café forum helps us to become better acquainted and makes for a friendlier place. If you have a question or comment that doesn't fit into any other forum, or just want to chat, this is the place, but remember the rules still apply in the Café forum. We ask that each of you be self moderating when it comes to the Café forum in both content and quantity of these discussions.

Duplicate posts and topics
Posting the same or similar posts or topics in one or more forums is not generally permitted. The moderators reserve the right to remove duplicate posts or topics.

Replying to posts and topics
Repetitive use of smilies or one word responses to topics which don't progress the discussion should be limited. Each message should contribute to the discussion.

Remedies
We reserve the right to remove or edit posts and topics that don't conform to these rules without notice, and to suspend the posting privileges of any participant who refuses to comply. Users who repeatedly break the rules will be banned.

Forum software
Our forums are powered by phpBB (hereinafter “phpBB software”, “www.phpbb.com”, “phpBB Group”, “phpBB Teams”) which is a bulletin board solution released under the “General Public License” (hereinafter “GPL”) and can be downloaded from www.phpbb.com. The phpBB software only facilitates internet based discussions, the phpBB Group are not responsible for what we allow and/or disallow as permissible content and/or conduct. For further information about phpBB, please see: http://www.phpbb.com/.