Acceptable Use Policy

This Acceptable Use Policy is intended to help create an atmosphere in which freedom of speech is balanced by self-discipline and a mature attitude to discussion. We encourage people to join these discussions freely and it would therefore be very surprising if exchanges did not occasionally become a little heated!

By virtue of your participation in the discussions, you are deemed to have agreed to abide by these rules. Although the Moderators do not take responsibility for monitoring every message that is sent to the website, we do regularly read through them and will not hesitate to remove items submitted from anyone who ignores these rules.

This AUP relates only to the ComputerTutors community forums; it is not intended to form the basis of guidelines for any other discussion group, whether hosted by Yahoo! Groups or not.

1. Personal Identification

Do not represent yourself as another person. Anonymous contributions, or contributions made with the intention to mislead, will be removed and perpetrators may be referred to the Yahoo! Groups disciplinary process.

2. Use of These Groups

Messages should not be malicious or designed to offend. In particular, the use of swear-words or profanity is forbidden.

You undertake to indemnify Yahoo!, the Moderators, and any other associated organisation or individual against any liability arising from any obscene, defamatory, seditious, blasphemous or other actionable statement published by you on this site and against all damages, losses, claims and costs (including, without limitation, fines and expenses arising out of or incurred in conducting or defending any proceedings) arising from any such actionable statements.

3. Conduct of Discussion

Your message should be within the scope of the subject under discussion. If you make a contribution that is inappropriate to the subject under discussion, you may be directed by a Moderator not to raise the matter further or to raise it within a separate discussion group.

Reference should not be made to the personality of other participants in a discussion nor must attacks be made on an individual's character unless the person concerned has already chosen to bring his or her personality into the issue under discussion.

You should remember that you are legally responsible for what you write. You must not make statements that are libellous, obscene, seek to incite racial hatred or otherwise break the laws of the United Kingdom.

One-to-one arguments, disagreements and disputes of a personal nature must be conducted through private e-mail and not through public discussion.

Every attempt must be made to avoid so-called "me too" postings in response to an offer by a group member to provide an electronic resource. To effect this, group members should upload resources they are willing to share to resources sharing area at www.computertutorsresources.org.uk.

If this is not possible, or a group member wishes to retain control over the distribution of their resource, you must respond to their offer of providing the resource by e-mailing them directly, not simply by replying to the group. You can find group member's e-mail addresses in the Members list. These are protected by Yahoo! for privacy reasons but messages sent using these addresses are forwarded verbatim by the Yahoo! system.

If you need guidance in this matter, please contact the Moderators directly.

4. Private E-mail

If a person has sent you a private e-mail you may not forward it to a public discussion group without the prior consent of the person who sent it. This does not prevent you forwarding private e-mail to the Moderator should you consider this appropriate.

5. Advertising and Research

No advertising is allowed except where it is for an event, publication or similar item that has direct relevance to the subject of discussion. Information about locating and sharing knowledge and expertise is welcomed, but within the specific discussion category provided.

6. Use of Shared Resources

Unless expressly indicated otherwise, all resources uploaded to the resource sharing area are deemed to be in the public domain. That is to say that all members of the forums may download and use the resources providing the original source (www.computertutors.org.uk) is acknowledged, and any copyright message placed in the resource by the author is left intact.

It is strictly prohibited to use shared resources for profit or to modify them in any way. Doing so may represent a breach of copyright, even if the documents are acknowledged to be in the public domain.

If you wish to modify a resource before using it in your organisation you should try to contact the author through the Members links of the appropriate group. Where you have tried to make contact in this way but failed, you may make the modifications providing you leave the original copyright message intact. If there is no copyright message you should add an acknowledgement detailing the name of the member who authored the resource.

If you would like to share your resources but are concerned about putting them in the public domain, it is acceptable to post a message announcing their existence and asking members who would like a copy to contact you directly, not by posting so called "me too" messages to the group.

Please exercise common sense and courtesy in using other members' materials: respect the work they are sharing with you and be sure to acknowledge your sources at all times. If you have any questions about your intended use of another member's resources, please contact that member directly using the Members feature in the left-hand menu of each Yahoo! group.

7. Receipt of Promotional Material

ComputerTutors.org.uk issues occasional messages of a 'newsletter' nature. We also send messages if an announcement is urgent, such as a security alert.

ComputerTutors.org.uk will never sell its mailing addresses to third parties. Being a non-profit organisation which relies on donations, however, we may occasionally distribute advertising materials on behalf of private companies where we feel the products or services may interest you.

The same policy applies to postal mail. We will never pass your address details to third parties, but may make occasional use of them ourselves.

8. Complaints About a Breach of these Rules

Complaints about a breach of these Rules should ONLY be made by getting in touch with the Moderators, who will take timely and appropriate action with regard to the complaint.

Please remember: By virtue of your participation in this discussion, you are deemed to have agreed to abide by these rules. If you have any questions or concerns about them, please contact the Moderators without delay.

How to Contact the Moderators

Once logged in to the group, click on the Members link (in the menu bar on the left of each page), then on Moderators. Any Moderator listed there will be able to help you.