Introduction
The Royal Welch forum moderating team is keen to provide a place where members can chat to other members, make new friends and seek advice and support from other members in an atmosphere of mutual respect.
Forums are moderated by volunteers from the forum community. The moderators are not paid and volunteer their time freely. The role of the moderators is to ensure that the forums provide an enjoyable and informative experience for all. They also ensure that the Forum Guidelines and rules are followed. The moderators have the right to edit, censor, delete or otherwise modify any posted message.
If at any time you have reason to question the actions of a moderator, in the first instance send a PM to the Moderator. If your issue still cannot be resolved then contact a member of the Administration Team; 5haron, Paul Davies 701, Lofty-23, Scouse75, who will discuss this with the moderator and make a final decision on your case.
General Forum Rules
All members are reminded that they may be held legally accountable for what they say or do online. This may include any advice however well-intentioned, which could result in harm or injury to another person. In particular, members may be held liable for any defamatory comments, threats and untrue statements or other illegal and fraudulent claims made by them.
We do not believe that freedom of speech gives any member the right to personally attack another member or members. Personal opinions are welcome but personal criticism/comments/attacks are not. We believe that everyone should be entitled to voice his or her own opinion but this does not necessarily mean it is always appropriate to do so, on our forum.
When posting messages, please be aware of the feelings of other members. We appreciate that all members will have varying views on certain subjects but please note that we will close any thread if the discussion gets out of hand.
Personal feuds or arguments will not be tolerated. They are not of any interest to other members and just spoil the friendly atmosphere on our forums. Offending posts will simply be deleted.
Messages that are confrontational, rude, threatening, hateful or abusive will be removed or edited and the person responsible may be given an official warning or ultimately be banned from using this forum.
Do not post messages with the purpose of provoking other members.
Members should not post duplicate topics that have already been posted.
Members should not post "flame bait" discussion topics.
Any member who is thought to be deliberately being argumentative, abusive or generally causing trouble (for other members or any member of the admin staff) will find their posts removed from the main forums without explanation and stored indefinitely by the moderating team.
User Profile and Personal Information
Your username
We have tried to keep it friendly and informal. Basically, the name you used to register with is also the name you will use on the Royal Welch Forum. Please DO NOT create multiple usernames, for any reason! The moderating team is more than happy to change a member’s username if there is a valid reason for doing so.
If for any reason a member feels they cannot continue to use their current username and wants to set up a new account and new username they should contact the moderating team to advise they will be doing so along with full details of the new username & email address etc. Their previous username may then be suspended/deleted by the moderating team
Member profiles (including Signature, Avatar & Location boxes)
Registered members can use their User CP to change or update their user profile and to add personal information, avatar, profile picture, signature and more.
Signature Rules
Signatures may not contain text or images which could be considered as being offensive; they must also be of an acceptable height and width. Any signature that contains offensive content may be removed by the moderating team. Members should also consider the feelings of other members before posting signatures containing pictures or content that could cause upset to another member specifically.
Adding photos or other images to our forum
Members may post personal photos or images on our forum. Any member adding photos to our forum should be aware that once photos are uploaded to our forum, they can be saved and printed off by virtually anyone.
Private Messaging
Private messaging is a way of allowing discreet conversations between members which are not viewable to the public or by search engines. The Private Messaging service is available to all new members upon joining our forum although the moderating team may at any time withdraw this service from the user account of any member they believe are using or intending to misuse the Private Messaging service in a manner which breaches the forum rules or terms and conditions.
Private Messages should remain private. Members should not discuss, copy or post the content of any PM onto any of the forums nor should they forward any PM they have received onto any other person unless that person is a member of the moderating team.
PM's which you may receive from moderators and administrators should be classed as confidential and should not be shown or emailed to another person, posted publicly on our boards or shared with other members of this message board.
Members use the private messaging system at their own risk. The forum owners and the staff are not responsible for the content of private messages which members send to each other. We do not endorse opinions expressed by members in any private messages they may send via our boards.
Blocking PMs from other members
Our private messaging system has several options which can be adjusted via the Edit Options link in your User CP. If you scroll down to the Messaging & Notification box (the second box down) and find the Private Messaging section (under Default Thread Subscription Mode) it will give you various options that you can enable or disable easily.
Blocking specific members - if you do not wish to receive PMs from one specific member, you can add that member to your
Ignore list (you must add their name exactly as it is on the system) and this will prevent them from contacting you via PM.
Receive Private Messages only from Contacts and Moderators - You may choose only to receive private messages from moderators and those members you have added to your contacts list. Other members who attempt to send messages to you will be told that you have disabled private messaging.
Reporting a Private Message
If you receive a private message (pm) from another member and you feel that the message they have sent you breaks our forum rules in any way, you should report them and their message to us using the warning icon located at the top of the message.
Posting
General
1. Members should post in a way which is consistent with "normal writing". Please don't post excessive numbers of emoticons, large, small or coloured text, etc. Similarly don't SHOUT or use excessive punctuation (e.g. ! and ?) in topic titles or posts.
2. Please use an appropriate, descriptive title when posting a new topic. Examples of bad titles include; "Help me!", "Help!", "PLEASE HELP!!!!", etc. Examples of good titles include; "Searching for William Walters", " Where can I find?", etc.
3. Spam is not tolerated here under any circumstance. Nor is posting links to sites irrelevant to the discussion.
4. Topics are to be made in the relevant forum. It's a lot of work for us to constantly move topics from one forum to another. Read the forum descriptions before posting.
5. Posts are to be made relative to the topic’s discussion and be informative. Avoid posts containing only smilies, greetings, thank you or personal messages such as “Check your PM”, “Thank You”, etc. You will be given a warning.
6. Racial comments: No racial comments whatsoever. This will lead to immediate suspension of your member account.
7. Profanity: Profanity in general is not appreciated on this forum. A member can expect a warning should the moderation team feel it is necessary. Let's all keep it clean. PLEASE don't post any jokes in the Jokes Forum that verge on indecency or bad taste. Make this an enjoyable part of the forum for others
Do Not Post Nonsense
You are not required to reply to every single thread and post in a forum. Please only reply if you have something useful to add to the thread. Posts such as "I agree", "OK" and "Me too" are all considered nonsense. If you do not have anything helpful to say in a thread or you do not know the answer to a question, please do not post simply to say that you do not have anything to say or that you do not know the answer the question.
Posts that will be edited, deleted, or get you banned:
Posts containing offensive racial, gender, sexual preference, religious, political, or nationality-bashing language.
Any post containing language that is offensive in a public, family context.
Links to inappropriate content.
Flame bait. In other words: inflammatory messages posted with an intent to provoke emotional responses. This is not to be confused with a sincerely held belief or opinion that differs from the norm and is expressed in a meaningful and congenial way.
Quoting:
Don't quote back entire messages in your reply. While this board allows you to "quote" (i.e. include) posts when you reply to them, very rarely do you ever need to quote the entire post. Just quote the relevant portion and chop out the rest. If someone includes an image in their post, do not include it in your quote.
Try not to quote posts directly above yours, as it is a waste of bandwidth and resources; additionally, do try to refrain from creating quote pyramids (quotes within quotes)
How to report a post or member
Reporting a post or member Each post has a small warning triangle icon in the bottom right hand side.
If you feel you need to report a member or a thread, or just bring something to the attention of the moderating team, you can click the warning triangle icon . and discreetly alert us to whatever it is.
Complaints about other members
If you think someone is breaking any of the rules listed here, please click the warning triangle icon . on the offending post so the moderators can deal with it.
Please note that reported posts are used to bring attention to things that need dealing with on the boards and may not be treated as a formal complaint unless it is clearly stated by the member who is reporting the post.
If you are not happy with a situation that seems to have arisen on the boards or you wish to complain about another forum member, please do not do post your complaint on the public boards. Instead, you should pm a moderator with your complaint. We will then deal with the matter and then contact the other member (or member of the moderating team) in private if we feel the complaint is justified.
The moderating team will take complaints about another member seriously and the identity of the complainant will normally be kept confidential. The moderating team will then deal with that complaint in an appropriate manner. This may range from a friendly PM to the member concerned, to an official warning or even a temporary or permanent ban from our forums.
Members should not discuss complaints about themselves or other members in our forums, nor should they post any messages or start any threads which discuss those members and said complaints.
Any complaints we receive about our members may be stored by the moderating team and referred back to at a later date
Official Messages & Infraction system
The official messaging and infraction system may be used by members of the moderating team as a way of keeping a record of any members who have been contacted for various reasons, including those who persist in breaking our forum rules.
Members should not use their profile to draw attention to any official messages or infractions they have received on our forums, nor should they post messages which draw attention or discuss any official messages or infractions they may have received. Any such posts/threads will be edited/deleted by moderators without warning.
If any member receives a message or an infraction and wishes to query the reasons behind this, they should send a private message to the moderator who sent the message.
Banned Members
The moderating team reserves the right to ban any member at any time without prior discussion. This includes any member who is suspected to be using multiple usernames, or who is believed to be using a false identity purely to confuse, deceive or harass other members.
Members should not post threads on any of the forum boards discussing if (or why) a particular member has been banned from the Royal Welch Forum
Members should not post notices on behalf of banned members, nor should they post messages demanding that a banned member should be reinstated. Messages of this kind will be removed.
Any member who has been banned from our forums should not attempt to return using another identity. Any member who is found or suspected to be doing so, will automatically be banned without notice.
Any posts by members who have been banned from our forum may remain on the forum indefinitely at the Moderating Team's discretion. Any member who has been banned does not have the right to expect their posts to be removed. Certain threads may be kept in storage indefinitely and referred back to at a later date by the Moderating team and/or any party acting on the forum’s behalf.
Breaking rules will result in punishments. There are several types of punishments:
Warning - This is where a public announcement is made that mentions your name and that you have broken a rule. We will determine whether you knew what you were doing was wrong, or whether a warning is necessary to explain it to you.
Muting - This is where you are not able to talk on the board. You may still view it.
Temporary Ban - This is where you are not able to view the board for a certain period of time.
Permanent Ban - You can never again view the board.
The following rules list the most serious violations:
• No Hacking - This should go without saying, but you are not permitted to hack the board. Guessing someone else's password and succeeding counts as hacking. Members who hack will instantly be permanently banned without any warnings.
• No Discrimination - You may not insult members based on their religion, race, sex or political beliefs.
• No Profanity or Obscene Content - Such content does not belong on the Royal Welch Forum. A censor system is in place as a backup. If you see words in your post being replaced with ****, you have posted some kind of obscenity. Please edit your post and tone it down. To edit a post, click the "Edit" button right below it. Cheating the censorship system is against the rules.
If you break one of these rules, the following penalties will apply (first time, second time, third time...) with the exception of breaking the rule "No Hacking" which immediately results in a permanent ban:
• Warning - Depending on how serious a violation is, you may be issued a warning first.
• Muting - Muting for 10 days
• Temporary ban - People who cause more problems after being muted for 10 days will be banned for a month, and for 2 months for the next offence.
• Permanent ban - At this point, it is obvious that will never learn your lesson, thus, a permanent ban is necessary to be rid of the problems you cause.
Forum Administration
The rules listed here cover the most common disruptive or inappropriate postings, but this is not a complete list. We reserve the right to remove any post that we consider disruptive or inappropriate, even if that post is not specifically forbidden by our published rules.
The Royal Welch Forum provides these forums as a free service to its members and reserves the right to change or vary the forums or withdraw any part of the forum service at any time, without prior notice or explanation to members. By using this forum, you agree that the administrators and moderators of this forum have the right to rename, remove, edit, move or close any topic (or posts within that topic) at any time should they see fit.
We cannot guarantee the prompt editing or removal of any content. We do not endorse opinions expressed by members of on its forums.
The forum rules are applied by a case by case basis at the discretion of the moderating team. The owners may change or vary these rules at any time without prior notice to members.
Free Speech: Think of our website like one of those magazines where you send your photos and letters in and hope they get included. When you send letters or photos in, the editor reserves the right not to publish them. In addition, the editor doesn't list all the letters or photos that weren't published; neither do they justify their reasons. Our forum has a moderating team which acts as editors of the content published by our members. All views are welcomed but you must respect our rules, and editorial rights.
Rights of membership: At the end of the day, you have no more an automatic "right" to use this forum than you do any other facility which is aimed at the general public. For example if you upset other members in a local swimming pool or library, the management is within its rights to ask you to leave and ban you from their facility. Please remember that we are within our rights to withdraw your membership of our forum or to request you refrain from posting on a certain board or subject at any time.
Although moderating decisions are usually kept confidential, the forum administrators reserve the right to inform other members of the outcome of moderating decisions in cases where the other member is directly affected by that moderating decision or if the other member was/is directly involved in that specific case.
The Moderating Team
Please treat members of the moderating team with respect. Do not post messages attacking the moderators or administrators. Do not send rude, threatening or offensive messages to the moderators or administrators, by email, by private message, by use of the "Alert" function, or by any other means. Any member acting in an aggressive or abusive manner towards any member of staff will be banned from our forums
Moderators will not get involved in a public discussion or disagreement over any moderating decisions which have been made - this includes discussing whether a thread should or should not be moved, edited, locked or deleted.
Once a thread has been moved, edited, locked or deleted, members should not post new messages asking why a message has been moved, edited, locked or removed. The reason for the deletion of the thread/post will be sent to you by the moderator that deleted it. Members should not post new threads discussing that thread, its contents or the reason it may have been edited, locked or deleted. Any such threads will also be locked or deleted.
Correspondence you receive from moderators and administrators should be classed as confidential and should not be emailed to another person, posted publicly on our boards or shared with other members of this message board.
Any complaints about support team, the general moderators or the boards should not be posted on the general forums. Threads or posts which make complaints publicly or publicly discuss complaints which have been made will be removed. If you feel the need to complain about any member of staff, please Mail Me!
