Code of Conduct

1 General

Your use of Scottish Community Safety Network website URL: http://www.communitysafetyscotland.org (the ‘site’) must at all times be in full compliance with this code of conduct. Your use of the site indicates your agreement to be bound by this code of conduct. Your access to the site from time to time shall be entirely at the discretion of the Scottish Executive.

2 Information you provide

Currently, the only time we would ask you for information about yourself is to register in order to access and use private areas within the Memembers'section of the site. If this applies to you then your personal information will be protected and only be used by us in limited ways. 

Any information of a personal nature that you provide to us will be kept confidential by us and will only be used for the purposes that have been specified above. In particular, we will not disclose or give your information to outside third parties (apart from organisations processing the information on our behalf) unless you have given us your explicit consent. Whenever we intend to give your personal details to such third parties we will ask you to consent first before the information is disclosed.

3 Use of on-line Information

3.1 You are allowed to use the on-line Information, but you must not:
3.2 download, store, reproduce, transmit, display, copy, distribute or use any of the on-line Information other than for your own personal use;
3.3 sub-licence, rent, lease, transfer or attempt to assign the rights in the on-line Information to any other person;
3.4 make the on-line Information available on a network;
3.5 allow any other person to use the on-line Information other than in accordance with these terms and conditions.

4 Copyright and monitoring

4.1 The property and any copyright or other intellectual property rights in the on-line Information belongs to the Scottish Community Safety Network or others who have allowed the Scottish Community Safety Network to use that Information.
4.2 Unauthorised use of the on-line Information may breach copyright, trademark and other laws. You must keep all copyright notices and trade mark notices contained in the original on-line Information on any copy you make of that on-line Information.
4.3 You must not copy or adapt the HTML code that the Scottish Community Safety Network creates to generate the pages of the website as this is also protected by Scottish Community Safety Network's copyright.
4.4 You may not use the website to transmit, distribute, store or destroy material which will be in breach of any law or regulation.
4.5 You may not use the website in a way which will infringe the copyright, any trade mark, trade secret or any other intellectual property rights of others or the privacy, publicity or other personal rights of others.

5 Forum Usage

Use of our forums constitutes acceptance and agreement to our Forum Code of Conduct and Forum user Agreement.

If you violate the Code of Conduct or User Agreement, we reserve the right to terminate all accounts belonging to you without prior notice. We prefer to advise users of inappropriate behaviour, however, flagrant and repeated violations of our Code of Conduct will result in an immediate ban. Our failure to enforce this policy, for whatever reason, shall not be construed as a waiver of our right to do so at any time.

We created the Code of Conduct to provide a basic understanding of what's allowed and not allowed in our forums. The following are guidelines for the establishment and enforcement of our CoC:

• Ensure a friendly atmosphere to our visitors and forum members
• Ensure the privacy of our members and that of others
• Comply with existing laws
• Encourage responsible use of our forums and discourage activities which disrupt our community and reduce the value of our services to our visitors
• Encourage the freedom of expression and exchange of information in a mature and responsible manner
• While we are committed to the principles of free speech, certain activities may be damaging to the resources of both The Scottish Community Safety Network and our communities and cannot be permitted under the guise of free speech. The resources of The Scottish Community Safety Network are limited, and abuse of these resources by one user has a negative impact on the entire community.
• As a member of our community, you must participate responsibly. If you have any questions regarding our CoC, please contact any of our forum moderators via email.

Violations of the Code of Conduct

The following constitutes violations of our Code of Conduct.

Unauthorized access / Forum Security

The following actions are strictly prohibited:

• Accessing, or attempting to access, the accounts of other users
• Exploiting, or attempting to exploit, bugs, vulnerabilities, or loopholes; whether they are disclosed or undisclosed
• Penetrating, or attempting to penetrate, security measures of The Scottish Community Safety Network software or hardware, or electronic communications system
• All intrusions will subject all your forum accounts to immediate termination, regardless of whether or not the intrusion results in the corruption, loss, or theft of data.
• Users are responsible for the security of their accounts. Users may not share their passwords or transfer – via any means – their accounts. In addition, users are responsible for all activity made by him/her.

Profanities

You may not use profanity or bypass the software-based censor. In addition to words included in the censor list, sexual remarks and slang may be considered profane when used in certain contexts.

A word about what is considered to be bypassing the software-based censor: Anything done to avoid the default *'s provided by the censor is considered to be a bypass of the censor. For example, if the word "angle" was in the censor (it is not), then all of the following are considered a bypass of the censor and thus in violation of the CoC:

• A**** ang1e, angl3
• anglë, añgle
• a n g l e
• [i]A[/i][i]n[/i]gle
• angle
  (links to image containing the word "angle" used in a demeaning context)

Harassment

• We have no tolerance for personal attacks, as determined by forum moderators, towards users or staff.
• You may not use terms or audio/visual materials referring to ethnic/national origin, ideological/religious beliefs, gender, or sexual preference in a demeaning context.
• We have no tolerance for discrimination. You are in violation of this rule if the nature of your post discriminates, promotes hate, promotes violence or advocates hatred or discrimation against individuals, groups, races, cultures or organizations because of their ethnic/national origin, skin color or culture.

Derogatory Terms

If you use any terms in an offensive context against a person, race, culture, group or organization, as determined by our moderators, you are in violation of this rule.

Please note that words carry different meanings in different cultures, and that while a word may be acceptable use in one part of the world, it may not be in another. In addition, any one can invent their own derogatory terms, unfortunately. Because of those factors, we will evaluate the context in which the term was used to determine whether a violation has occurred.

Porn/Sexually Offensive Materials

You may not post or link to pornography or sexually offensive materials. If you are unsure whether what you wish to post may be in violation of this rule, please consult a moderator first before posting.

Illegal Use

You may not use our forums for illegal purposes, in support of illegal activities, or encourage conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, as determined by the laws of the country. Such activities will guarantee a ban. We reserve the right to cooperate with legal authorities and/or injured third parties in the investigation of any suspected crime or civil wrongdoing.

Privacy

• You may not post any form of real life information of a user unless the user has first permitted it by express consent. Examples of real life information include name, address, IP addresses, and phone numbers.
• You may not distribute any form of real life information, email address, private/email Messages, and Instant Messenger messages ("Chatlogs") with intent to harass or in any demeaning manner as determined by a moderator, regardless of consent.
• You may not disclose a user's unpublicized email address unless the user has first permitted it, either by actual consent or previously releasing said information. You may not post any form of real life information if you are 13 or under.

Email Addresses

• You may not harvest email addresses from our forums for any purpose.

Moderation & Bans

• Do not post negative posts and discussions that are repeated over and over and over with no other purpose than to disrupt conversation. If you feel the need to say something, say it once and then move on. Do not disrupt multiple threads in order to get your view out.
• You may not bait/troll users. Bait / Trolling is defined as posting with a clear intent to provoke anger, incendiary posts, and behaviour that results in other users violating the CoC.
• You may not bait, insult, flame, or otherwise abuse a staff member. Staff members have to follow the same rules, and should you have a problem with a certain staff member, please contact a moderator or the Forum Management Team.
• You may not abuse your ability to post in HTML in HTML-enabled forums.
• You may not post graphically-disturbing images.
• You may not register multiple accounts with intent to violate any part of this CoC.