Forum Rules

[Tamsin]

Forum Rules

Please remember that while you are visiting the forum you are our guest, and as such you should behave in a civilized manner at all times and treat other members and the admin team with respect. Failure to do so or violating these rules may result in your membership being revoked.

Appropriate Content
Website links and content posted on the forum should be suitable for all ages. The one exception we will permit is questions on rabbit care which may involve photos or information some people may find distressing. In this situation please post a warning in the topic title.

You may not:

• Post or link to any material that is abusive, illegal, obscene, vulgar, libellous, defamatory, hateful, harassing, threatening, sexually or racially offensive or otherwise objectionable.
  
  
• Post links to or information about websites or products with the sole purpose of criticizing or attacking them.
  
  
• Post links to freeads (including ebay) containing animals for sale. If you have a concern about an advert please see here.
  
• Impersonate another forum member, moderator or anyone else; attempt to gain access to another members account; or create multiple accounts under different names.
  
  
• Make personal attacks, including insulting, threatening, making accusations or berating other members or the admin team.
  
  
• Post with the deliberate intention of causing an argument or disruption on the forum (trolling).
  
  
• Post rants. A rant is an angry, non constructive post complaining or attacking a person or topic. This encourages personal attacks and causes disruption on the forum.
  
  
• Post, incite debate or send unsolicited PM's about your website, organisation, product, services or items for sale (including livestock). The forum does not allow advertising. However, you may post a text link to your website in your signature.
  
  
• Swear or use abusive language. We consider it unnecessary and inappropriate and have word filters to remove offensive language. Please do not use variations or punctuation to try and circumnavigate these filters.

Tone of Posts
The forum should be a supportive place to visit. It is possible to disagree with something without turning it into an insult. Sometimes it's not what you say but how you are saying it that causes a problem. For example, if someone is feeding their rabbit in a way you consider bad you could say:

"Why are you feeding your rabbit that rubbish? You should have done more research and fed it this instead. You better change it quickly before your rabbit dies."
Or

"Have you thought about swapping to pellets? Quite a few forum members feed these as they have more fibre so are better for their gut."

The first is likely to get you a warning from admin and chase the rabbits owner away. The second is friendly and tactful and will encourage the owner to listen to your advice. Sometimes it's difficult to be patient if you see something happening you think is wrong but staying calm and polite will generally get the most successful response in the end.

Also consider replies by other members. Multiple posts from different members raising the same issue can feel like being 'ganged up on'. Consider whether your post adds anything constructive.

Report a Problem Post
If you are concerned about a posting you should contact a member of the admin team immediately and privately with the concern, and we will make a decision as to what action needs to be taken.

If you read a post which you think is inappropriate or breaks the rules you'll find an icon on the bottom left of each post. Clicking this will let you send the admin team a report. You can also PM us with any problems.

Please DO NOT try to tell another member off. If you spot someone breaking the rules, report the post and then ignore it. Don't get involved in the argument.

Editing & Removal of Posts/Accounts
We reserve the right to edit or remove posts. When a post is edited a note from admin will be added to state this. Posts are removed for lots of reasons, sometimes because we need to check the content, sometimes because content is inappropriate, sometimes because they've become arguments. We often remove a topic temporarily whilst we consider/deal with it. If you have any questions about why we have done something please PM us. We do not mass delete posts or close accounts. If you no longer wish to use the forum simply stop logging in.

Signatures & Avatars
You may have one image in your signature, a maximum size of: 590px by 200px. Maximum avatar size is 80px x 80px. Please make sure any graphics you use are not copyright and keep file sizes as small as possible. The same rules about content apply to images and text in your signature.

Fundraising
We have a few additional rules on posting details of fundraising. Please see: Fundraising Section for details.

Rabbits for Rehoming
We have a few additional rules on posting details of rabbits for rehoming. Please see: Posting in RiN for details.

Legal
Members are held responsible for their own postings and any repercussions that occur if you should damage an individual, organisation, business, service or supplier of goods. The owners of Rabbits United Forum, nor any of its associates will be in any way held liable for the content of any postings.

Members are responsible for any decisions that they make based upon advice given within forum postings, and cannot proportion blame to the instigator of the posting if that advice does not prove to be correct or ideal. Advice from the forum does not replace that of a vets or expert, and you should always consult a vet before following any advise you receive.

Finally
If you are unclear on any of these rules and have questions, want to ask about a moderators decision or have questions about the way the board is run then please PM one of the admin team, do not post on the forum.

[Tamsin]

Amended 17 March 2008 (changes in red).

[Tamsin]

Amended 5th May 2008 (changes in red).