Front Forum: discussing The Great War 1914-18

Rules and guidelines for using the Western Front Association Forum

The Western Front Association Forum (known as the Front Forum) is owned and operated by The Western Front Association (WFA), an educational charity registered with the Charity Commission (Registered Charity No. 298365).

Membership
The Trustees of the WFA reserve the right not to accept registrations of new members.

Applicability
Your use of the Front Forum is subject to the rules and guidelines shown on this page. By using the Front 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 your private messages and emails sent through and from the Front 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 Front Forum.

Respect for your fellow member

You will not swear or use vulgar or offensive language.
You will not post messages that are in any way racist, sexist, abusive, obscene or discriminatory in any way.
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 inaccurate or defamatory comments.
You will not post messages which are invasive of a person’s privacy or otherwise violate any law.

Threats or any form of harassment against another member will be taken seriously. The WFA will co-operate 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 the Front 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 judgement, in private, but you are not entitled to a "hearing" or even a response. The rules outlined on this page will be used as moderation guidelines.

Please remember that the Front Forum is moderated by people who have volunteered to put themselves in the position of sometimes having to make difficult judgements. Following these guidelines and rules makes their life easier and everyone's experience of visiting the Front 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 the Front Forum. The WFA, as owner of the Front Forum, retains copyright in the overall compilation of the Front Forum and has an implicit licence to use your message as part of the Front Forum. Specifically, this includes the design of the Front Forum including but not limited to domains, URLs, titles, logos, graphics and other images, category descriptions, modified Front Forum html, skins, themes, templates and styles, and other features which are the property of the WFA.

Respect for other forums or websites
The Front Forum is not a vehicle to be used to disparage other forums or websites, or members of other forums or websites, or their viewpoint. You will treat and respect members of other forums and websites as you are expected to treat and respect fellow members here. Offending posts will be removed, if necessary without warning. The Moderators’ decision is final.

Advertising
You will not solicit or promote any commercial activity in which you have an interest on the Front Forum. You are permitted to link to Great War related commercial websites in which you have no interest or connection in your posts if the link is germane to the subject of your posts. A link to a non-commercial website is permitted in your signature but must be of a reasonable length and use the small font option. No link to a commercial website is permitted in your signature or personal profile. Banners or other images are allowed in a signature but only to the permitted maximum size of 100px x 25px. Commercial logos are not permitted in signatures, 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 WFA Web Editor and obtained explicit permission in writing by letter or email to post such content. 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.

You may promote or announce events and activities that are organised by or organised for non-profit making bodies and where such events and activities are directly related to the subject matter of the Front Forum, that is The Great War (the First World War).

If you are in any doubt, please contact a Moderator first. The Moderators’ decision is final.

Spamming and Flood Posting
Spamming is not allowed, and anything that resembles it will result in automatic deletion of your account and banning from the Front Forum. The Front Forum is designed to inhibit flood posting but, again, anything that resembles it will result in automatic deletion of your account and banning from the Forum.

Subject matter
The Front Forum is specifically designed to encourage discussion in all matters relating to The Great War (the First World War). On occasion, discussion necessarily may drift into related areas and this is permissible.

You must post in the appropriate area for your topic and you must not 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. Images posted in threads must be relevant to the thread subject matter; irrelevant or unnecessary imagery will be deleted without warning.

Registration and personae
Multiple registration - that is, having more than one live membership - by an individual is not permitted. 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.

Suspension or termination of membership
The WFA and Operators of the Front Forum shall have the right immediately to terminate or restrict your use of the Front Forum if it is determined in their sole discretion that you have breached these terms and conditions or otherwise have been engaged in conduct which is determined to be unacceptable. Individuals will normally be contacted personally but this is not guaranteed. Additionally, relevant third parties may be contacted such as your ISP or email provider about the infringement. Action taken may involve:

Moderating your posts before publishing on the Front Forum
Suspending you from using the Front Forum temporarily
Permanent exclusion from the Front Forum

Member's legal responsibilities
Members are held responsible for what they write in the Front Forum, regardless of whether it is a post on the Front Forum, in their signature or profile, or in an email or message that is sent by the Front Forum. The member specifically agrees by use of the Front Forum to indemnify and hold harmless the Administrators, Moderators, Hosts and Owners of the Front Forum against any form of action. The WFA and Moderators do not vouch for or warrant the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any message or post and are not responsible for the contents of any message or post. The Front Forum’s site content is provided "AS IS" without any representations or any kind of warranty made (whether express or implied) to the extent permitted by law. Under no circumstances will the Front Forum Owners, Hosts, Administrator and/or Moderators be liable for any loss of data, loss of revenue or anticipated profits, loss of business, loss of opportunity, loss of goodwill or injury to reputation, losses suffered by third parties, or any indirect, consequential, special or exemplary damages arising from the use of this site regardless of the form of action. Material which is posted in the Front Forum is written by users and there is no responsibility for and no endorsement of such material. Contributions are monitored and may be responded to or commented upon and any content from the Front Forum may be edited and/or removed within the absolute discretion of the WFA. No failure to remove particular material constitutes an endorsement or acceptance of it by the WFA. All members have accepted these terms on registering to join the forum and explicitly agree to these terms on their continued use of the Front Forum.

What to do if you see another member breaking these rules
Please report any messages violating these rules to the Moderators. There is an icon link to do this in each message as you view it.

Changes to these rules
The WFA and Operators of the Front Forum reserve the right to modify these rules at any time and without notice or announcement. A member’s continued use of the Front Forum is in explicit acceptance of the current version of the rules in force at the time of posting to the Front Forum.

Governing Law
These terms shall be governed by and interpreted in accordance with the laws of England and Wales.

Release notes
Rules as of 15 October 2008


Please raise any questions regarding the Rules and Guidelines in the The WFA>Web Editors section of the Front Forum.