Sustainable Living Community Forum rules

1. Conduct and behaviour

Be kind and respectful of all your fellow Sustainable Living Community members. You never know when they can help.

Always be friendly

There is no place for trolling, harassing, bullying or deliberately provoking others. Treat others as you like to be treated.

It's OK to disagree, but be civil, keep your tone friendly and don't be aggressive or make personal attacks on other members of the community. Before you post, think, 'could what I have written be read as unfriendly and upset someone?' and/or, 'how might this be perceived/make someone feel?'.

We want the Sustainable Living Community Forum to be a safe and encouraging place for people to share their experience and information relating to all things that help people live more sustainably. Abusive, manipulative and passive-aggressive behaviour is unacceptable, as is being provocative for the sake of it.

There is zero tolerance in our community for hate speech, bigotry or prejudice, including, but not limited to, race, colour, nationality, sexuality, gender, disability or religion. Absolutely zero tolerance!

Please mind your language

We use profanity filters and will act against those trying to work around them or using language that we deem offensive, this includes sexual references or inference and vulgarity or links containing any of these.

The same principles apply to usernames and avatars which should be clean and simple with no inappropriate connotations or innuendo.

Our team are human, have feelings and run this Forum to help you. Please be kind to them and understand that if you aren't, we won’t tolerate it. We reserve the right to take any action we feel is reasonable and appropriate, on a case-by-case basis, without debate.

Impersonation

Attempting to impersonate Sustainable Living Made Easy staff, public figures or other users – either via username, Forum posts or PMs – is not permitted.

Look out for other community members

No one knows what another person may be going through. We expect you to report any post that gives you concern for another person's wellbeing or safety.

In summary – please keep it kind and please keep it clean.

2. Posting content

Let's work together to keep us all safe and the Forum a happy space.

Do not share personal information

We want to keep our Forum focused on quality Sustainable Living content and to keep you safe while doing this. Please do not request or share personal identifying information or arrange to meet up in posts or PMs. This also includes sharing your own or others' names, email addresses, details of where you live or work and any social media accounts.

Additionally, avatars shouldn't contain personal information, business details, copyrighted material, flashing images or QR codes.

We also ask that you take extra care when uploading photos of personal documents and make sure that you have redacted all personally identifiable information.

Private messages are exactly that – please don't share them.

Posting etiquette

In order to be able to comply with the obligations involved in running a Forum, we request that posts are made in English, so that our team is able to review them if necessary.

Stay on track

Conversations work best when on topic, so keep your posts relevant and constructive. Derailing and disruptive posting is unacceptable.

Advertising and spam

Anyone who uses the internet will be familiar with both of these and the blurry bit in between. Sustainable Living Made Easy free site and we don't allow people to buy advertising space. As a result, it is emphatically not a place for you to promote or advertise for personal gain. This includes posts on the Forum and information in your signature and avatar. Please don't link to your eBay sales, auctions or any other forms of selling or advertising. There are sites specifically to sell, trade, exchange, swap or to gift items – the Sustainable Living Community Forum is not one of them and we will always treat these posts as spam and remove them.

Sadly, not everyone is honest and genuine. Therefore, refrain from asking for money or sharing personal fundraisers as we can't police who is genuine or not, and doing so may also breach our rules on sharing personal information. This includes the posting of links to personal fundraising or crowdfunding pages, such as JustGiving.

Be wary of clicking on links – they could contain viruses or other harmful computer code. Users are not permitted to post URL shorteners such as Bitly, SnipURL and TinyURL. If you see one, please do report it and don't click it. If you choose to, you do so at your own risk.

Schemes and possible scams

Please don't share details of any type of pyramid scheme, including lottery and sweepstake schemes.

The last thing any of us want is for people to be scammed.

Active boycotting

We appreciate emotions can run high should you experience poor service from companies, but we cannot accept active calls to boycott organisations as we are unable to verify the service you received.

Referral codes and links

Please don’t share referral codes and links as we cannot verify their validity and security.

Medical advice

However well-intentioned, avoid seeking and/or offering medical advice, as it could result in unwanted consequences for all concerned.

Don't rely – verify!

Our Forum offers a wealth of Sustainable Living wisdom, tips, hints and information both new and historical. However, some of the information changes quickly, is opinion or may be incorrect. We don't verify or take responsibility for what is posted by the community. No two people have the same circumstances or experience and it is up to you to investigate, check and check again before you make any decisions or take any action based on information you glean from our community. Remember, don't rely on what you are reading. Verify it and protect yourself. You are responsible for any action you consequently make.

'Fake news' has a significant impact in society, and it is wise to verify something before blindly stating it as true, or sharing it on a public Forum. Be wise. If we feel something does cross the line and/or is harmful or detrimental to our users, we reserve the right to remove it.

This includes posts we believe have been generated by AI. Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool but the Forum is a place for real people to share their experiences and insights.

In summary – stay on track and protect yourself.

3. Legal considerations

The MSE Forum is a space that often deals with sensitive issues and is of immense benefit to those who view and contribute. To help you express yourself freely but accurately and legally, we ask that you pay special attention to these rules.

Copyright

Please refrain from reproducing material that is not written by you. If you didn't make it or write it, it is owned by someone else and reproducing this material may infringe that person's copyright.

Consider the implications of your post

It’s important to understand that your post(s) could land you in court, being sued for defamation, and that you may have to pay substantial costs.

The Forum Team does not decide if a post is defamatory or investigate claims made in a post. Therefore, be aware that you may be liable for what you write in a post.

Remember: it must be about Sustainable Living to be relevant to the thread and posted in accordance with the Forum rules.

Please don’t write something you’re not prepared to stand by as you and not Sustainable Living Made Easy will be liable should any legal complain be raised.

'Illegal' or 'grey legal area' content

Do not promote, encourage or glamorise any illegal activities.

5. Dealing with posting outside of the rules

We want the Forum to run smoothly and, ideally, we want to police the community as little as is needed.

However, if one of your posts has been reported to us, we will try to link you to, or quote, the post in question and detail which rule/s have been breached when we take action. Sometimes we can't do this however, if your post is part of a thread that has been reported then deleted in its entirety.

When a user posts outside the rules, we ACT…

A = A Quiet Word

As it says, an informal quiet word is given when you post something that is a bit off the mark or open to be construed as unacceptable.

C = Caution

You've stepped over the mark by consistently and/or more seriously flouting our rules.

T = Time Away

If you've been cautioned or significantly broken a rule, we may choose to give you some time away from the community by not allowing you to post for a defined period.

For gross rule breaches or where time away has already been provided, we will:

Remove

This happens when your breach/es are so often or severe, that we have no option but to remove your ability to post permanently.

Please remember, we will act on behaviour that breaches the rules as we see fit and while we will try to give feedback, we are not required to provide reasons, especially during busy times when this may not be possible. The team has to make judgement calls every day so please respect the rules and let’s avoid having to ACT at all.

Please also don't question or criticise Forum Team decisions on the public Forum. Any such posts shall be removed, and appropriate action taken.

Appeals

If you want to appeal a decision, please email your appeal to sustainablelivingmadeeasy@gmail.com. Please don't post your appeal in the Forum or comment about it there.

We will take on any relevant information you supply and review the comment. Extenuating circumstances will not affect the outcome of a decision – posts are viewed in the context of the Forum. We'll then let you know the outcome – the normal timescale for this is around five working days.

Although your intent may not have been to offend/insult/breach etc, we or other community members feel differently. Please be mindful, accept this and move on.

Repeated or unwarranted appeals, or any abuse of the appeal system will not help your case. Communication of this nature is likely to be ignored, as will further appeals after a review.

And finally...

We don't undertake these actions lightly and being able to appeal gives both you and the Forum Team the opportunity to 'sense check' decisions. We should stress however, that the decisions we make are final and we have neither the resources nor the inclination to enter into lengthy debate or discussion once an appeal has been reviewed and received a decision.

If we remove your ability to post, consequent unacceptable behaviour, such as alter ego creation to cause disruption, may result in us reporting you to your internet provider and blocking your IP address.

Finally, although thankfully rare, if we encounter any escalating or threatening scenarios as a result of removing you from the Forum, we won't hesitate to involve the police or commence legal proceedings where relevant.