Rules and Guidelines
(Articles)
for using the
British Merchant Navy - Old Friends Forum


Membership


The owners of the British Merchant Navy - Old Friends Forum reserve the right not to accept registrations of new members.
Your use of the British Merchant Navy - Old Friends Forum is subject to the rules and guidelines shown on this page. By using the British Merchant Navy - Old Friends Forum in any way you signify explicit agreement to all of the statements contained herein. These rules and guidelines apply to the titles and body of your posts, to your signature and to private messages and emails sent from the forum. Failure to adhere to the rules may result in your posts being modified, moved or deleted. Continued failure to respect the rules may lead to your account being suspended or a ban being placed on your continued use of the forum.
Respect for your fellow member
You will not use profane language.
You will not post messages that are in any way racist, sexist, abusive or obscene.
You will not incite or be aggressive in tone.
You will respect the right of others to express their opinion.
You will not post irrelevant text designed to disrupt discussion.
You will not make any statements that could be construed as defamatory of an individual, group or business.
Threats or any form of harassment against another member will be taken seriously. The forum owners will cooperate fully with law enforcement agencies in the event of an action.

Respect for Forum moderators

All moderators have an absolute right to delete, move, edit or otherwise change any post added to this forum as necessary in order to maintain flow, ensure adherence to these rules and maintain the positive spirit of the discussion. If you don't agree with a decision you may discuss it with the moderator who made the judgment in private, but you are not entitled to a "hearing" or even a necessarily to a response. The rules outlined on this page will be used as moderation guidelines. Remember that the discussion forum is moderated by people who have volunteered to put themselves in the position of making difficult judgment calls. Following these guidelines/rules makes their life easier and everyone's experience visiting the British Merchant Navy - Old Friends Forum better.

Respect for copyright

You will not post material that may be copyright, where publication rights are owned by others. You own copyright to posts that you make on this forum. The owners of this Forum retain copyright in the overall compilation of the forum and has an implicit licence to use your message as part of the forum by virtue of that implicit licence. Specifically, the design of this forum including but not limited to domains, URL's, titles, logos and other images, category descriptions, html skins and other features is the property of the owners of the British Merchant Navy - Old Friends Forum.

Advertising

You will not solicit or promote any commercial activity in which you have an interest on the main Forum. A link to a non-commercial website is permitted in your signature but must be of a reasonable length and in a small font. No link to a commercial website is permitted in the signature or personal profile. No banners or other images are allowed in a signature. Commercial logos are not permitted nor are they to be used as an avatar. Posts that are deemed by moderators as promoting a commercial interest will be deleted or otherwise modified unless you have specifically approached the Forum owners and obtained permission to post (email admin@greatwarforum.com for such permission). No warning of such removals or modifications will be given. This ruling includes charitable appeals. In case of any doubt, the moderators' decision will be final.

Subject matter

This forum is specifically designed to discuss matters relating to the British Merchant Navy. Clearly, on occasion, discussion necessarily drifts into related areas and this is permissible. There is also an off-topic area for non British Merchant Navy discussion. Discussions and posts on modern-day politics or religion will not be tolerated in any area of the forum. Always post in the appropriate area for your topic and don't post similar messages in multiple areas. Messages posted that are irrelevant to the discussion and designed to distract or disrupt will be deleted without warning.

Registration and personae

Multiple registration - that is, having more than one live membership - by an individual is not recommended. If second and subsequent registrations are detected the moderators may take action to close, suspend or otherwise render all but one registration inactive. Repeated attempts to register extra memberships, or the use of one membership to discuss in any way another existing membership opened by the same individual, will, once detected, lead to immediate closure of all membership accounts on the grounds of bringing the Forum into disrepute.

Suspension or termination of membership

In the case where these rules are violated, your membership of the Forum may be terminated and access blocked; alternatively a members posts may be made subject to moderator sight before they appear in the forum. Should any of these actions become necessary, the member may be advised by email. Repeated transgression will result in your account being banned and your ISP being informed.

Member's legal responsibilities

The member is held responsible for what they write in the Forum, regardless of whether it is a post in a forum, on their signature or profile or in an email or message that is sent by the forum. The member specifically agrees by use of the forum to indemnify and hold harmless the administrators, moderators and owners of this forum against any form of action. The forum owners and moderators do not vouch for or warrant the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any message and are not responsible for the contents of any message. All members have accepted these terms on registering to join the forum and explicitly agree to these terms on their continued use of the Forum.

What to do if you see another member breaking these rules

Please report any messages violating these rules to the moderators. There is a link to do this alongside each message as you view them.

Changes to these rules

The owners and operators of the British Merchant Navy - Old Friends Forum reserve the right to modify these rules at any time and without notice or announcement. Members continued use of the Forum is in explicit acceptance of the current version of the rules in force at the time of posting to the Forum.