Guidance for Members [Incl. T&Cs]

Hi Grapes.

We have tagged this onto the Guidance thread, rather than start a new thread, both for info and to remind grapes of the above.

Regarding...PM Abuse:

It has been brought to our attention recently that several Grapes have received Personal Messages that are not in the spirit of the Vine, ie not for info, for seed swaps, or are of an unfriendly content.

Grapes receiving these may consider them to be from a Troll, or a one off, or might brush them aside. However, if this if happening and nobody is reporting it, then nothing can be done about it.

PMs can be directly forwarded to us, and all of us can be included, so that the content can be monitored and necessary action taken.

We WILL ban and block Grapes who abuse this system, but we can only do so if we are alerted to the situation.

For info, Mods are:
Nicos, Snoop Puss

Kind regards, and happy Gardening

The Mods.

MULTIPLE USER-NAMES

We would like to remind all members that Multiple-User Accounts are not accepted on the Grapevine without good reason. Where partners/offspring are members, we would ask that this is made clear to avoid confusion. If a Grape is having problems with their original account and is forced to re-register, the Mods and/or Admin should be notified, hopefully the original account will be able to be restored.

Any multiple user-accounts attempting to; add weight to a heated debate, harrass other Grapes, or otherwise deceive or antagonise, are liable to all accounts being banned. Any attempt to register another user-name after being banned will lead to a full IP address block.

We know that this will be unnecessary information for the majority of our members, but unfortunately it has become necessary to clarify this point.

PLEASE DON'T POST PHOTOS OF CHILDREN WHO AREN'T PART OF YOUR FAMILY, WITHOUT PERMISSION FROM THEIR PARENTS!

I'm sorry, but there are laws about these things, and, if someone was posting photos of my kids on the internet without my permission I'd go absolutely bananas....

Without wanting to discourage the community spirit inherent in the chat section, there have been some concerns about some health related topics.

Whilst it can be helpful to talk to friends and like minded people about health concerns, any immediate health problems should be discussed with your own GP, or in an emergency situation NHS Direct can be called on 0845 4647.

Please bear in mind that any advice given by members of this forum is incidental to any professional expertise and is not being given in their professional capacity.

Removal of Signatures explanation

Hi Grapes.

As Moderators we have to ensure that not only spammers are kept out of the Vine, but that the minimum of 'surreptitious' advertising is kept down.

Sometimes, people will put their websites into their signatures which we have to look at and ensure that no sales or advertising is going on within.

Often, although the website looks helpful it often links to products that the website/blog owner are either selling or take a cut of the money.

When these are removed, the first answer that I get is that 'you have websites in your signature too and loads of people have them'; well, yes we do but we don't make any money out of them.

Some people are allowed links, but that is because they are PAID UP advertisers with the magazine; and these are allowed due to this.

Thus, if your signature is removed; it is put to the Admin team at the magazine, and you will eventually be asked to either remove it completely, to stop putting links into other threads to your website or any other action that the Magazine Admin team deem necessary.

We often will remove the signature link until we hear back from the admin team in which case we will get back to you as soon as we hear back. Sometimes, they will contact you directly.

We are writing this thread as a link, so if you have been directed here as a result of a signature removal; please can you take it up with the Admin team or wait until they make a decision rather than start a PM conversation with us - we are just here to Moderate and don't really want to engage in long drawn out arguments about it.

If you are unsure of the rules it will be section 13.i that you are looking for [no advertising or promotion].

We very rarely will remove links on the 'homepage' section of your profile, so could we ask politely that if your website does have advertising, please leave the link there and everyone will be happy.

Many Thanks

The Moderators.

Signature space for hire

Hi Grapes.

If anyone contacts you requesting that they 'hire' your signature space, please let us know so that we can ban them immediately. Just hit the red triangle on the PM and it comes straight to us.

Rest assured - the person that has done a round of this today is already gone but I suspect they will be back.

If you DO decide to hire it out - then we will be removing it anyway so don't bother!

Thanks.

Just another reminder that these are some of the Terms and Conditions you agree to by using this forum:

13. You agree to use growfruitandveg.co.uk communities (including message boards) in accordance with the following Community Rules. These apply across all growfruitandveg.co.uk community sites and services. You should, however, read the local house rules of the particular site or service you're using, as there may be some local variations to these Community Rules.

(i) About your posts:

Contributions must be civil and tasteful.

No disruptive, offensive or abusive behaviour: contributions must be constructive and polite, not mean-spirited or contributed with the intention of causing trouble.

No unlawful or objectionable content: unlawful, harassing, defamatory, abusive, threatening, harmful, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, racially offensive or otherwise objectionable material is not acceptable.

And:

3. You agree to use growfruitandveg.co.uk only for lawful purposes, and in a way that does not infringe the rights of, restrict or inhibit anyone else's use and enjoyment of growfruitandveg.co.uk. Prohibited behaviour includes harassing or causing distress or inconvenience to any person, transmitting obscene or offensive content or disrupting the normal flow of dialogue within growfruitandveg.co.uk.

And finally:

...continuing to break the rules may result in action being taken against your account or accounts.

This action may include any content posted by you being checked before allowed to go on the site or a temporary or permanent suspension of your ability to participate in any or all of growfruitandveg.co.uk community areas.

If you submit or share offensive or inappropriate content to or with any growfruitandveg.co.uk communities or anywhere else on growfruitandveg.co.uk or otherwise engage in any disruptive behaviour on growfruitandveg.co.uk, and Aceville Publications (2001) Limited considers such behaviour to be serious and/or repeated, Aceville Publications (2001) Limited may use whatever information that is available to it about you to stop any further such infringements. This may include informing relevant third parties such as your employer, school or email provider about the infringement(s).

Aceville Publications (2001) Limited reserves the right to delete any contribution, or take action against any Aceville Publications (2001) Limited account, at any time, for any reason.

We have noticed some discussion over the last few days about keeping threads on topic within the forum which we would like to address. Previously on the forum, threads were kept ruthlessly on topic and any chat was stifled. As moderators changed, this was relaxed, as we felt that the chatty nature of the forum was more welcoming and friendly for new users and old. However, it seems that perhaps we have got the balance slightly wrong, and whilst we in no way want to change the friendly and chatty atmosphere, we acknowledge that sometimes the advice that people are looking for gets a little lost. This is not the fault of anybody other than the moderators - it is our job to guide the forum in a direction that suits as many members as possible.

In light of this, whilst we are not going to issue arbitrary rules or stamp out the friendly nature of the forum, if it appears that threads on the main advice boards are going too badly awry, the chatty posts will be moved from these threads into the already established 'Tangentisation' thread. We hope that this will make for some hilarious reading, whilst maintaining accessibility to the friendly and helpful advice given by so many of our members.

That this issue has gotten to the point of causing dissent between members is entirely our fault, and we would like to apologise to all concerned.

The Mods

Joke Threads

Hi all

We had to pull the long running 'Joke' thread for various reasons, mainly because there were more 'jokes' that had to be pulled than were appropriate to be posted on a family forum. And also because it needed constant moderating and we all have other things we'd rather do than read 'jokes' featuring such 'hilarity' as rasicsm, sexism, and all other isms and schisms.

Please desist from posting joke threads on the Grapevine as all will be pulled.

Although they start off harmless, they attract non-appropriate 'jokes' and to be honest, we don't find spending our spare time babysitting it all that much fun.

Kind Regards on behalf of the Moderators.

Grapevine meet ups.

Just a few thoughts to bear in mind.

If you participate in a thread and say you are going to go to a meet up, please either go, or keep in touch with the organiser and let them know if you can't attend. Please don't say you will be there, and never go back to the thread and never turn up. Venues are chosen to take into consideration those that say they are coming, so if half don't come - a more suitable venue might be required.

Please try to stay local, if people are travelling from far and wide, spending lots of money on travel and accommodation, and other local people don't turn up, who said they were going to be there, it can be a terrible waste of money and time.

If you start the ball rolling with a thread to organise a meet up, then you nominate yourself as organiser, and you should be responsible for prompting people, reminding them, finding people travel info and taking contact phone numbers for the day.

Just a few learning points from a recent meet up, that might help others in future when arranging to meet.

Terms and conditions of website use (part 1)



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Terms and conditions of website use (part 2)

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