Forum Rules

[admin]

Welcome to the Mums Advice Forum! We are thrilled to give you a warm welcome to this space. 

Our mission is to provide a safe space to ask mum/baby/parenting questions . To that end, we will be working hard to ensure that we align our actions with that purpose. These Community Guidelines should not only help you understand how to act within the community but also help you understand what to expect from others in this space.  

The following rules are enforced across every forum on this board; they are the global rules and must be followed at all times. Your membership here is also conditional on you following them so please take the time to familiarize yourself with them before joining in on discussion.

1 – No inappropriate content:

This is a forum used by both people at work and minors and so it is important that strict boundaries are set for what can and can’t be posted here.

Inappropriate content is any content which we deem is not fit to be displayed on this website. By content we mean anything that you publish on this website, for example posts, signatures, in photos or in private messages.

Inappropriate content includes but is not limited to that which is:

• Vulgar or graphic
• Of pornographic nature
• Offensive to any specific group of people
• Offensive to a general audience
• Hateful
• Sexually oriented
• Threatening
• Invasive of a person’s privacy

Examples of any of the above will result in your post being removed and a warning recorded against your account.

1.1 – No swearing
Swearing is considered inappropriate; if you have a strong point to make then find an appropriate adjective rather than resorting to swearing. This includes disguised swearing as the intended meaning is still obvious. Posts which contain swearing will either be edited or removed and further repercussions may be incurred.

1.2 – Keep things legal
We ask that you don’t bring illegal topics onto this forum. While it’s acceptable for such topics to be included as an element to a discussion please set boundaries and keep a distance from discussions that might be incriminating.

Examples of what should not be brought into discussions here:

• Specific methods or sources of piracy
• Specific methods of committing a crime
• Public acknowledgment of potentially illegal acts committed, including piracy
• Actions that imply illegal conduct

Any posts which contain the above will be removed without notice.

2 – No personal attacks or abusive behavior

Each and every member on this forum has a right to be treated with dignity and respect, any actions which contravene this will result in severe consequences.

The following behavior is not acceptable:

• Personal attacks – Any insulting or abusive behavior that is directed at a specific person.
• Bullying (flaming) – Repeated abuse towards another member, this could be undertaken by one member or a number of members.
• Instigating (trolling) – Repeatedly provoking a member with the goal of getting an irrational response from them.

3 – Post properly

There are a number of rules relating to posting that must be adhered to in order to keep the forum operating smoothly.

The following is forbidden:

• Bumping more often than once per 24 hours
• Bumping old threads (necroposting) without good reason
• Typing in all caps, it looks childish
• “IM speak”, it makes it more difficult to interpret and understand what you’re trying to say
• No duplicate posts or threads – Once is enough.
• Posts in languages other than English, except in the internationalization forum.

3.1 – No spamming or irrelevant advertising
Spam: Pointless posts with little relevance to the topic
Irrelevant advertising: promotion of products or services that are not related to the topic

Posts which constitute either of these will be removed on sight.

3.2 – Post in the correct forum
Please use your best judgment when creating new threads. The moderators will move your thread if necessary, but please learn from your mistake and place the thread in the correct forum in the future.

3.3 – Use descriptive thread subjects
You must use a subject that is relevant and informative for your threads.
Do not use “help me,” “hello,” “error” or similar vague titles.
If you are requesting support for a plug-in, modification or theme, please include the name in the thread subject.

4 – Profile restrictions
Remember that your profile elements are subject to all the above content restrictions, in addition to the following:

Signatures:

• Animated GIFs are not permitted
• Do not use large text
• No referral/affiliate links

Usernames: Usernames must not constitute a URL (ie. something.com). They must also not be excessively long.

Any profile elements which break these rules will be removed immediately.

5 – Miscellaneous

• No duplicate accounts – duplicate accounts will be banned and you risk your main account being banned too.
• Rep comments – Reputation comments must not constitute inappropriate content or a personal attack as per the definition above. Anyone abusing the reputation system will have their ability to leave reputation revoked immediately, permanently and without warning.
• Respect the staff and their decisions – We are here to do a job which we do to the best of our ability. Any threads or posts questioning the decisions of staff will be removed on sight; if you have a problem with the actions of a staff member then discussing it with them via private message is the correct way to deal with it.
• Do not send unsolicited private messages to any community member for support, goods, or services – under no circumstances should you private message any community member for the purposes of requesting goods, services, and/or assistance (including technical support).
  There are exceptions to this rule, and this rule’s applicability to a situation will be evaluated by the Mums Advice Team on a case-by-case basis. For example, you may PM a user to inquire about services that they advertise here on the community (such as in their signature, R/S/J post, etc). Additionally, PMing a user for support if they have given you permission is clearly reasonable behavior. The intention of this rule is to expressly forbid the spamming of unwanted messages that the recipient clearly did not express any sort of desire to receive.

If you come across any posts which break these rules please do not hesitate to bring them to our attention by reporting them.

We reserve the right to modify these rules at any time and apply these modifications to all posts, even if they predate the changes.

[Author]

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