Now Guidelines for terms of service.
Guidelines on using this site
DPRevived.com member activity is governed by the Terms of Service
for the site. This underpins the relationship between you and the site,
but like all legal documents is designed to cover 'worst case'
situations. For day to day use you are entitled to know how we will
interpret that document and how we expect you to conduct yourself in
accordance with it. With a common understanding we can make
DPRevived.com a comfortable and rewarding space for everyone. This
document takes you through the provisions of 'acceptable use', why they
are there, and how we expect members will conduct themselves in response.
Content standards
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You may not post or upload any material which is illegal in the
jurisdictions of the federal United States of America, the European
Union or the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.
This should go without saying. If you post material that might cause
the forces of the law to come down on this site, you have done the
whole community a huge disservice. Moreover, if you do it, we'll
report you to the law enforcement agencies, so you'll have done
yourself a huge disservice.
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You may not post or upload content which is liable to cause harm or
distress to other people, including personal abuse and offensive
discourse targeting a group or an individual based on inherent
characteristics (such as race, religion or gender) and that might
threaten social peace.
This is much more complex. The last part is the UN definition of
'hate speech', which must very definitely be kept off the site under
all circumstances. Content that is liable to cause harm or distress
is clearly more of a judgment. As a site, we will make that judgment
and remove material that we believe falls on the wrong side. We would
much prefer it if our members make an appropriate judgment for
themselves, so we don't have to. Here are some guidelines.
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Be empathetic. Something that would cause you distress would be
likely to cause others distress -- so don't subject others to
behaviour that you would not want inflicted on you.
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Be aware of the medium. In face to face interaction we get cues
that give us feedback about how other people are reacting to
what we say. We don't get that over the web. So, one person
might think they are making a joke, whilst the other might find
what is said is insulting. Err on the safe side.
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Be culturally aware. What people find distressing differs, and
this is an international site. Profanity, nudity and content of
a sexual nature can all fall foul of this difference. The Web is
not short of places where these types of subject can be
indulged, so don't use this one. All it will do is make this a
place where a lot of people don't want to be.
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Don't get personal. When comments stray from the topic of discussion to be directed at the persons involved, an otherwise productive discussion is on track to head off the cliff. There is no real reason to descend to abuse and
name calling, so don't do it. [sentence removed]
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Focus on the topic of discussion. Robust and interesting discussions are at
the heart of the reason people come to this kind of site, but
let's keep them constructive. If you disagree with someone,
state why. [removed] Make your case and expect others to do the same. [removed] Don't
resort to ad-hominem arguments. They are always fallacious and
are inappropriate conduct in a public discussion forum. Don't take umbrage
because your opinion is disputed, that's what discussion is
about. Show respect for the other party -- you might think you
have more experience and know better, but you could easily be
wrong.
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Don't participate in bullying. We know how it works in the
school yard, the gang picks on the person with the unpopular
opinions. Don't do it here.
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Be sympathetic. All types come to this forum, including people
from different backgrounds, different cultures, the
neuro-divergent and people with different life histories who
have been through traumas you don't know about. You may think
that their behaviour is unreasonable, but there may be many
reasons for it. Don't make the situation worse by picking
disputes even if you feel that the other party is.
- Be open to giving and receiving constructive feedback. DPRevived.com is a community-run site. If you see another member conducting themselves in a manner that violates the ToS or Guidelines, bring that to their attention in a positive, constructive manner. If another member responds to your conduct to call attention to conduct that my be in violation of the ToS or Guidelines, accept that feedback. Give it consideration and adjust your conduct as appropriate.
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You may not post or upload material containing malicious computer
programs or codes intended to activate such programs or that
provides them with data.
It's obvious why you shouldn't be doing this, so don't do it.
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You may not use the Site to disclose information that you do not
have the right to disclose.
If you disclose such information you might be sued or prosecuted.
If you use this site to do it, we might be sued or prosecuted.
Obviously we will not allow that.
Acceptable use
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You must not engage in any activity on the Site which is contrary
to the federal laws of the United States of America or the laws of
the European Union or the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland.
Neither the site nor its owner will tolerate conduct that exposes us to risk of prosecution as a harbour for
illegal activity. [removed] We have chosen to take a view of 'legality' based on
some of the major liberal democracies in the World. If your activity
is illegal in these jurisdictions, we really don't want you doing it
here.
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You must not use or attempt to use another person's account without
their express permission, nor must you impersonate other people when
using the forum.
Impersonating other people is extremely dishonest and damaging.
There is no valid reason to do it, so don't.
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You may not upload any material to the Site in breach of the
owner's copyright, nor remove any marks showing proprietary
ownership from any uploaded materials.
Photographers typically value their own copyright to their work, and
we expect people to operate on the basis of treating other people as
they would wish to be treated themselves. Moreover, the site really
doesn't want to be embroiled in copyright disputes. Note that the
terms say 'in breach of copyright', which means that you may post if copyright
law allows usage, such as for instance 'fair dealing' provisions, or
if the copyright owner grants an open licence, for example Creative
Commons. When posting material under these provisions please comply
with all and any of the licence provisions. If posting under 'fair
dealing', you should comply with English law, see
www.gov.uk/guidance/exceptions-to-copyright
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You may not link or show any part of the site containing members'
copyright materials to other websites in a manner that causes those
materials to be separated from the context of The Site without the
members' express permission in writing.
Following on from the above, it's possible to unknowingly cause a
breach of someone's copyright by 'hot linking' on another site,
which results in the persons work being displayed on that site
without anything to indicate whose it is, or what are the licence
terms. To prevent this we simply don't allow hot-linking.
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You may not use automated means to access the Site for the purpose
of 'web crawling' or copying material on the site, unless it is for
the purposes of a publicly available search engine or similar
resource.
This is to stop bad actors using search bots and other malware to
breach copyright and gather personal details. The presumption is
always that anyone using these tools is up to no good.
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You may not falsely claim or imply affiliation with or endorsement
by the Foundation or the Site.
You don't have authority to speak on behalf of the foundation unless
expressly authorised to do so, so please don't do it.
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You may not circumvent, disable or avoid any security or access
restrictions of the Site.
Should go without saying. Don't hack us!
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You may not conduct trade in user names or other unique identifiers
on the Site.
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You may not use the Site for advertising, chain letters or other
solicitations, nor to gather personal data for these purposes.
Taken together it means please don't use the site to conduct dodgy
business practices.
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You may not encourage or aid anyone else to violate these terms.
We're in this together. Let's keep together.
Our role
Our role is to keep this place welcoming and interesting for all. Unless
your activity is such that it threatens the well-being of the forum,
such as illegal posts or posting malware, we will try to find solutions
to issues through mediation and agreement. In the case where sanctions
are needed to restore order they will be as minimal as is needed, for
instance, we might use a short (hours) forum ban to allow disputants to
calm down. Extended bans and account deletions will only be used as a
last resort, or in the case of illegal or malicious behaviour.
