IOSH Forum rules

Summary of rules

1. Forum users must ensure that they comply with the forum rules listed here. Read more
2. When using the forums you are expected to be polite and respectful towards all forum users including the Forum Moderators and IOSH employees. Read more
3. Your posting must be appropriate to the forum and relevant to the discussion. Read more
4. You must not post any message that could be considered unwanted, unprofessional, defamatory, obscene, offensive, deliberately provocative, inflammatory, or unlawful. Read more
5. Your posting must be your own comments; be factual, truthful and where an opinion is given, it must be clearly acknowledged as such. Read more
6. You must not post complaints on the forums. Read more
7. Your posts must not contain commercial promotion or advertising of jobs, goods or services. Read more
8. Discussion of potential or actual legal proceedings is not allowed on the public discussion forums. Read more
9. Forum users are allowed one forum account only. Read more
10. Your registered screen name and avatars must not contain website or email address details, the name, or identifiable abbreviation of, an organisation, company, contact or location information, expletives, obscenities, religious statements or other potentially contentious terminology. Read more
11. Children of 16 years and under are not allowed to use our forums. Read more
12. Your posts must not be deemed as spam, or contain references to non-IOSH surveys, contests or chain letters. Read more
13. Postings must not infringe copyright law. Read more

1.  Forum users must ensure that they comply with the forum rules.
1.1. It is your responsibility to make sure you are up to date with the forum rules.
1.2. Failure to respect these rules may result in a formal warning from our moderating team. If you receive three such warnings you will be banned from using our forums. Severe breaches may result in an instant ban.
1.3. All public and membership forums are moderated. Committee forums and private messages are not moderated but remain subject to the same rules. Visit our forum FAQs page to find out more about private messaging.
1.4. IOSH members should note that breaching the forum rules could lead to the locking of your forum account. Members should also be mindful of our Code of Conduct when using the forums.
1.5. Our moderators’ interpretation of the rules is final. Whenever they consider that you have breached the rules they will usually contact you by Private Message via the forums and explain why they have taken action. Find out more about how the forums are moderated.

2. When using the forums you are expected at all times to be polite and respectful towards all forum users including the Forum Moderators and IOSH employees.
2.1. Please remember our forums are used by guests who might be new to the profession or to IOSH and at times may not have a background in occupational safety and health.
2.2. Please do not indulge in personal criticism of other users, bullying, aggressive, discriminatory or nuisance behaviour. Impolite or inappropriate postings made towards other users will be removed without notification.
2.3. Your language use must remain professional and must not contain swear words. This includes the use of asterisks or other symbols to mask the spelling of an expletive and the use of acronyms and standard SMS text terminology to abbreviate the expletive.
2.4. Please remember our forums are used by people worldwide. Therefore it is important to take into account legislation, cultural differences and language. English may not be the first language of other forum users.
2.5. Humour is often difficult to use in forums. A lack of context can easily lead to misunderstandings or offence. Also, it does not translate across cultural boundaries. In some cases, its use may be considered inappropriate by the Moderators.

3. Your posting must be appropriate to the forum and relevant to the discussion.
3.1. The forums are for professional discussion and debate of workplace health and safety and environmental issues. If your topic or posting deviates from these topics, or strays significantly from the original question, it may be moved to an appropriate forum, locked or hidden at the Forum Moderators’ discretion.
3.2. If you are not sure whether your message is appropriate, please ask the Web team.
3.3. Please select the correct forum when posting. We may move the message to the relevant forum and let you know by email or private message.

4. You must not post any message that could be considered unwanted, unprofessional, defamatory, obscene, offensive, deliberately provocative, inflammatory, or unlawful.
4.1. You must not use the forums to pursue or promote a grievance against any individual or organisation. This is not to stifle debate but to provent unwarranted attacks on others. Members of IOSH may discuss IOSH business on the Members’ forum.
4.2. Discussion about comments made by public figures on health and safety topics may be allowed at the discretion of the moderators.
4.3. If you believe that content placed on our forums breaches this rule, you must tell the Web team as soon as possible.

5. Your posting must be your own comments; be factual, truthful and where an opinion is given, it must be clearly acknowledged as such.
5.1. You must not appear to deliberately misquote another person or make misleading statements.
5.2. You must not register to use the forums as another person or pose as another person when posting.

6. You must not post complaints on the forums.
6.1. You must not post a complaint about identifiable users, IOSH moderators or moderating action.
6.2. If you are concerned about a moderating decision, posts or communications from a moderator, the forum rules or another user’s behaviour /profile/post/private message, please use the Report Message link available beneath every post. Alternatively you can email webteam@iosh.co.uk.
6.3. All concerns are considered by the Web Team and then discussed by the moderating team where appropriate. We’ll get back to you in five working days.

7. Your posts must not contain commercial promotion or advertising of jobs, goods or services.
7.1. This rule includes the promotion of personal causes and campaigns.
7.2. IOSH reserve the right to survey the forum users (excluding the Members’ Forum) and to promote IOSH controlled/IOSH partner events, and professional campaigns. Some restricted forums can be used in alternate ways. Please check the forum for terms of use.
7.3. Forum users may post their availability for employed work but any such post will be locked to ensure that responses are sent directly to you by private message. When offering employment opportunities you should make direct contact with the person who’s seeking work by sending them a private message.
7.4. It is acceptable for forum users to give brief details of a supplier or service in response to specific requests on the forum. Those details should be limited to contact details and not include any company name. There is no limitation on information provided via the private messaging facility and this may be used without restriction.

8. Discussion of potential or actual legal proceedings is prohibited on the public discussion forums.
8.1. Public inquiries, including where IOSH is a party to the inquiry, may be discussed on the Members’ Forum.
8.2. Information that has been intentionally released, for example to alert others to a particular hazard or fact, can also be discussed in the IOSH Members’ Forum.

9. Forum users are allowed one forum account only.
9.1. If you attempt to use multiple accounts, we may remove your access to our forums without notice.
9.2. IOSH regularly checks the information we hold about our forum users. If we believe the information you’ve provided is incorrect, your account may be suspended.

10. Your registered screen name and avatars must not contain website or email address details, the name or identifiable abbreviation of an organisation or company, contact or location information, expletives, obscenities, religious statements or other potentially contentious terminology.
10.1. If your screen name does not follow this rule, or is otherwise objectionable, the Web team will contact you and change your screen name as needed.
10.2. Before you upload an image to use as your avatar, you will need to check that the image does not breach copyright laws. You remain solely liable for any material, including avatars that you publish, display or transmit on the IOSH website. Read more about liability.
10.3. Your avatar will be removed without notice if it resembles, or is believed to impersonate moderator or IOSH staff avatars.

11. Children of 16 years and under are not allowed to use our forums.
11.1. If you are under 16 please ask your parent, guardian or teacher to post the question. You will still be able to read any responses without having to register for the forums.

12. Your posts must not be deemed as spam, or contain references to non-IOSH surveys, contests or chain letters.
12.1. All spam postings will be removed from our forums. If your posts are deemed to be spam your access to our forums will be removed without notice.
12.2. Some restricted forums may be used in alternate ways. Please check the forum for terms of use.

13. Postings must not infringe copyright law.
13.1. The forums must not be used to post, exchange or download material protected by copyright law.
13.2. You must fully reference any extracts from copyrighted material.
13.3. If you breach copyright laws your post will be removed.
13.4. You may be held liable for the content you post. Be aware of content on the World Wide Web that might be subject to copyright. For more information on copyright law, please visit the UK Intellectual Property Office website.

How our forums are moderated.

Our public discussion forums and the IOSH Members’ Forums are moderated by a team of approved Chartered Members who volunteer to act as Moderators. Their key task is to make sure our rules are followed by everyone who uses the forums. Their work is usually completed confidentially through private mail with the relevant forum users. At least two moderators take part in any decision that involves interpreting the rules. The moderating team cannot edit forum postings on the website. They are supported in their work by IOSH staff. All other member-only forums are moderated by committee members and IOSH staff. They follow the same rules as the moderating team.

If the moderators consider that your message has broken our rules, they will remove it. Where possible, we will let you know that your message is unacceptable and why. If you have been formally warned in this way more than twice, on the third occasion, your access to the forums will be removed.

The moderating team’s interpretation of the forum rules is final. If you are unhappy with their decision you must not make any comment on the forum. Please refer to our complaints procedure for guidance on how to complain.

Complaints & reporting procedure.

We are committed to providing a high quality, accessible and responsive service to our members and the public. However, if you believe that things have gone wrong, please send your complaints or comments to the Web team.  We will try to respond to any complaint within five working days.

If our response is not to your satisfaction, you may ask that it is referred to the Head of Communication whose decision is final.

You must not post complaints on the discussion forums.

Forum Disclaimer.

Postings made by forum users are personal opinions and not those of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH). IOSH is not responsible for the content or accuracy of any of the information contained in forum postings. Please carefully consider any advice you receive.

All postings made on the IOSH discussion forums, including private messages, are the property of IOSH. Please refer to our terms of use for more information. We reserve the right to remove entirely at our discretion any contribution you post.

Our public forums are accessible to everyone and are ‘crawled’ by search engines such as Google and Yahoo on a daily basis. This means anything you post on one of our public forums could be indexed by a search engine and returned in search engine results. IOSH accepts no responsibility if you’re posting is returned in such results. Member-only forums are not crawled by search engines.

Your email address is not visible to other forum users. To contact another user outside of the forums you should use our private messaging service. If you disclose your email address in a forum posting or private message you do so at your own risk. We do not accept any responsibility if something goes wrong as a result of publicising personal details on forum.

IOSH staff are able to view your email address. We will not publish or provide your email address to anyone unless they have a legal right to request such information.If we need to contact you about the discussion forums for administration or response to a complaint purposes we will use your main MyIOSH email address.

IOSH staff are able to see your Internet Protocol (IP) address when you post a message on our forums. This is the address used to connect your computer to the Internet. This information is for use by IOSH only and is only used to prevent misuse of the discussion forums. We will not disclose your IP address to anyone unless they have a legal right to request it.

Liability.

You remain solely liable for any material you publish, display or transmit on the IOSH website. You agree to indemnify (cover the costs of) IOSH and its Officers and employees against any claim, liability, cost, damage, other expenses or loss we may incur (including without limitation legal fees) as a result of any material you publish, display or transmit on the IOSH website or any violation by you of your obligations under these forum and blog rules. IOSH expressly excludes liability for any loss or damage resulting from the use of the website by any person in contravention of these forum and blog rules. We reserve the right, at our sole discretion, to promptly remove, or to disable access to, any material which we think is potentially defamatory of any person, unlawful or in violation of the any third party rights or any other part of these rules.