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Forum and blog rules

Welcome to our new discussion forums. Our forums have recently changed, so before you start using them please take a few minutes to get to know our new rules.

By using our forums and blogs, you agree to follow our rules and the terms of use for the website. If you’re an IOSH member you must comply with the Code of Conduct.

Got a question? Don’t forget to check out our forum FAQs, which are full of useful information about our forums.

The following rules form part of our terms of use for the website.

Before you start – some important information you should know

  • Postings made by forum users are personal opinions and not those of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH). IOSH isn’t 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 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 forums are linked to our membership database, so we can recognise IOSH members. If you’re an IOSH member, please remember breaches of our forum rules could lead to the locking of your forum account and in the case of a breach of our Code of Conduct, even disciplinary action. 

  • If you don’t follow our rules, and are given up to three formal warnings by our moderating team, you’ll be banned from using our forums. Severe breaches may result in an instant ban.

  • Our moderators’ interpretation of the rules is final. If they believe you’ve broken them, they’ll contact you by email. Find out more about the moderators.

  • If you’re not sure whether your message is appropriate, please ask the Web team before posting it.

  • If we update our forum rules, we may post a news item on our website to update you. It’s up to you to make sure you’ve read any changes to our rules.  

  • The forum and blog rules must be complied with in spirit as well as to the letter.

  • If you don’t agree to abide by our rules, you must not use our forums and blogs.


General rules

1. The forums are for professional discussion and debate of workplace health and safety and environmental issues. Make sure that your posting is appropriate and relevant. If your topic or posting deviates from these topics, or strays significantly from the original question, it may be locked or hidden. This is at the moderators’ discretion. Your posting must be accurate (where it states facts), truthful and be genuinely held (where is states opinions).

2. You mustn’t antagonise other users or post any information that could be considered defamatory, obscene, abusive, offensive, inflammatory, unlawful or creates a risk to a person’s safety or health.

3. You mustn’t indulge in bullying, aggressive, discriminatory or nuisance behaviour. Please be respectful towards other guests, IOSH members, moderators and IOSH staff. Please remember, our forums are used by guests who might not have a background in occupational safety and health. Inappropriate postings made towards guests aren’t tolerated. If you’re an IOSH member, bear in mind the Code of Conduct, in particular:

"Members shall not behave in a way which may be considered inappropriate to other members or staff of the Institution." (Paragraph 10)

4. The forums shouldn’t be used to post, exchange or download material protected by copyright law, unless you have permission from the copyright owner. You must fully reference any extracts from copyrighted material. If you breach copyright laws you must indemnify (pay) IOSH for any loss we suffer as a result. We reserve the right to remove any unreferenced copyrighted material. You may be held liable for the content you post. For more information on copyright law, please visit the UK Intellectual Property Office website.

5. Discussion of potential or actual legal proceedings is prohibited on the public discussion forums. Public inquiries may be discussed, including where IOSH is a party to the Inquiry, on the Members’ Forum. 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.

6. You mustn’t use the forums for:

  • commercial purposes (including the advertising of jobs, goods and services)
  • posting spam, surveys, contests or chain letters
  • promoting causes or campaigns.


7. All spam postings are removed from our forums. If you post spam, your access to our forums will be removed without notice.

8. If you’re offering employment opportunities, you should make direct contact with the person who’s seeking work by sending them a private message. If you’re seeking work, your topic will be locked to ensure responses are sent directly to you by private message. If you’re a course provider or product/service supplier, you can give basic contact details in response to a request for information about specific courses or products.

9. You mustn’t use the forums to make complaints against any individual or organisation. We’re not trying to stifle debate but to protect IOSH from being accused of encouraging unwarranted attacks on others. Discussion about comments made by public figures on health and safety topics may be allowed at the discretion of the moderators. Find out more about our complaints procedure.

10. If you want to discuss internal IOSH business matters, eg membership and policy issues, you should raise them in the IOSH Members’ Forum. All IOSH members have access to this forum. Discussion about health and safety issues should be posted on the OSH discussion forum.

11. Make sure that you use the right forum for your question or comment. If you post an appropriate message on an inappropriate forum, we may move the message to the relevant forum and let you know by email.

12. We can’t edit your postings. If you’d like us to remove your posting(s), please email the Web team. You may be charged an administration fee for this service.

13. Forum users should not attempt to edit/change their postings. Attempts to do so will result in your access to the forums being removed.

14. Remember that our forums are used worldwide. When you respond to a question, take into account legislation, cultural differences and language (eg English may not be the first language of other forum users). Humour often doesn’t translate across cultural boundaries and its use may not be appropriate.

15. Children of 16 years and under are not allowed to post messages on our forums and blogs. If you’re under 16 and need advice or have a particular question for our forum users, why not ask your parent, guardian or teacher to post the question on your behalf? You’ll still be able to read the responses without having to register for the forums.

16. Forum users are allowed one forum account only. If you attempt to use multiple logins to disrupt the forums or annoy other users, we’ll remove your access to our forums without notice. We regularly check the information forum users provide when registering with MyIOSH. If we believe the information you’ve provided is incorrect, we’ll temporarily lock your account and contact you.

17. Your forum account will be locked if your screen name:

  • contains a website or email address
  • contains the name of a company or an organisation
  • contains contact information (eg a phone number or postcode)
  • appears to impersonate someone else
  • contains swear words or is otherwise objectionable
  • is deemed inappropriate by IOSH.

Blogs

18. The above rules should be followed when contributing to our blogs. Blogs are moderated by IOSH staff in the same way as the forums.

Private messaging

19. Private messages are subject to the same conditions as forum postings, eg private messages should not be defamatory, obscene, abusive or unlawful. Visit our forum FAQs page to find out more about private messaging.

20. Forum users should report any unsuitable messages by emailing the Web team. Please don’t use the forums to complain about private messages (see 9).

21. If you send any unsuitable private messages we reserve the right to temporarily lock your account while we investigate. In extreme circumstances (eg harassment), this may involve logging into your account to check your messages. If you’re an IOSH member you must comply with the Code of Conduct.

Avatars

The avatar upload feature will be added shortly. In the meantime, here are the avatar rules:

22. Forum users are able to upload their own avatars. Avatars may not:

  • be animated
  • contain text
  • contain logos
  • be used for advertising or promotion.

23. The creation and use of avatars is subject to the same conditions as forum postings and all of our Forum rules. Avatars shouldn’t, for example, be defamatory, obscene, abusive or unlawful. Avatars which are unsuitable, as determined by IOSH staff and Moderating team at their sole discretion, will be removed without notice.

24. Before you upload an image to use as your avatar, you’ll need to check that the image doesn’t breach copyright laws. Remember, you remain solely liable for any material (including avatars) you publish, display or transmit on the IOSH website. Read more about liability.

25. Forum users should report any unsuitable avatars by emailing the Web team. Please don’t use the forums to complain about avatars.

26. Your avatar will be removed without notice if it resembles, or is believed to be impersonating, moderator or IOSH staff avatars.

27. If you don’t follow our Avatar rules, and are given up to three formal warnings by our moderating team, you’ll be banned from using our forums. Severe breaches may result in an instant ban. If you’re an IOSH member, a serious breach may be referred to our Professional Committee and could lead to disciplinary action.

Your forum profile page

28. Every forum user (guest and IOSH member) has a profile page, which is viewable to other logged in users and searchable within the forums. Your profile page shows:

  • your forum screen name
  • the forums you belong to
  • when you last visited
  • number of postings you’ve made.


There’s also the facility for logged in users to send you private messages. All users have the option to add further details to their profile page, eg real name, time zone, avatars. Visit our forum FAQs page to find out more about forum profile pages. 

Search engines and email addresses

29. 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 your posting is returned in search engine results. Member-only forums aren’t crawled by search engines.

30. 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 don’t accept responsibility if something goes wrong.

31. IOSH staff and moderators are able to view your email address. We won’t publish or provide your email address to anyone, unless legally requested, eg by the police. If we need to contact you about the discussion forums (eg administration or moderation purposes), we’ll send an email to your main MyIOSH email address. 

IP addresses

32. Moderators and 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 won’t disclose your IP address to anyone, unless it’s legally requested, eg by the police, or under a Data Protection Act (DPA) request.

Report a concern

33. Use the “report a concern” feature to raise any issues or concerns you have about a topic or post. All concerns are automatically sent to the Web team. They’re then discussed by the moderating team. You mustn’t post complaints on the discussion forums (see 9). Please allow up to five working days for a response.

The moderating team

34. Our public discussion forums and the IOSH Members’ Forum are moderated by a team of approved Chartered members – all unpaid volunteers. It’s their job to make sure our rules are followed by everyone who uses the forums. The moderating team can’t edit forum postings on the website. At least two moderators take part in making a decision that involves interpreting the rules. They’re supported in their work by IOSH staff. Visit our forum FAQs page to find out more about the moderating team.

35. All other member-only forums are moderated by committee members and IOSH staff. They follow the same rules as the moderating team.

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

37. The moderating team’s interpretation of the forum rules is final. If you’re unhappy with their decision, please refer to our complaints procedure.

Complaints procedure and reporting of defamatory comments

38. We’re 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. If our response isn’t to your satisfaction, it may be referred to the Director of Communications, whose decision is final. You mustn’t post complaints on the discussion forums (see 9). Please allow up to five working days for a response.

39. A defamatory statement is one which tends to lower a person in the estimation of right-thinking members of society generally. A defamatory statement must identify or refer to the person and be published by the offender to a third party. This includes a posting on the IOSH website. If you believe that content placed on our forums or blogs is defamatory of you or of anyone else, you must tell the Web team as soon as possible. 

Liability

40. You remain solely liable for any material you publish, display or transmit on the IOSH website. You agree to indemnify (pay) 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.

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