Terms and rules

urban75 has a large and lively community posting on the bulletin boards. To make your stay a pleasant one, it is a condition of your registration that you read the following before posting. See the Help menu for technical problems.

Briefly: Anyone pissing about, advertising, hassling, posting up disruptive content or personal info, or peddling racist, homophobic, defamatory, sexist or similarly dodgy content can be expected to be booted off without appeal.

Even more briefly: Don't act like a dick and we'll all get along fine.

1. Please read the boards for a while before posting. Use the search function to see if your topic has already been discussed to save repeating questions/threads that already exist. Please note that these are discussion boards and not a free resource for journalists/students/market researchers.
   


2. No advertising. We are not interested in hearing about your company/website/club/gig/song/product. This is a non-profit, community discussion forum, not a free advertising resource and offenders will be banned.
   You may advertise gigs/events/parties but you must obtain permission from a moderator first. No exceptions. Note that charity or free events are the most likely to be accepted. Next come those for which there is a big discount for Urban75 members. If you're trying to plug a straightforward commercial event, don't bother, no matter how many people you think might be interested.
   The Brixton Noticeboard forum is an exception to the above. Guidelines can be found in that forum.


3. Thread titles should be concise and meaningful. Vague titles (e.g., 'look at this!') just waste time and bandwidth. Please add the date to time-sensitive threads because titles like, "Dr Who on TV tonight!" will become meaningless the following day. Don't use the c*nt word in thread titles as this will block people connecting through filtered networks.


4. Content-free posts are not permitted. Posts containing nothing more than links to websites or video files are not permitted. Please explain the nature and relevance of the linked content as a courtesy to users. Do not post up large amounts of cut and paste text. Make things easier for others by summarising the article and including a link to the unabridged version.
   Users who make a stream of posts with no meaningful content and/or continually post up off topic material in inappropriate threads/forums will be banned. Completely flippant and pointless polls will most likely be deleted.


5. Call-out threads. These are threads started solely to have a go at particular poster. Expect them to be deleted on sight and a warning issued.


6. Bumping old threads. Mischievously 'bumping' old threads can confuse users, so please do not revive long-dormant threads unless you have some meaningful and relevant content to add.


7. Trolling/direct linking. Do not directly link to 'hostile' websites (leave gaps in the URL if you wish to refer to them). Anyone found posting up malicious links on other sites and/or trying to stir up 'board wars' will be banned.


8. Behaviour. We're happy to host lively and robust debate but racists, bullies, sexist oafs, bigots and general all-round irritating arses are not welcome on these boards. Over the top swearing, endless personal attacks and needlessly disruptive conduct is not permitted and posters who continue such behaviour after being asked to stop will be banned. Threads that descend into personal insult-a-thons will be binned.


9. Gore/shock-fest/explicit pictures and porn are not permitted.


10. Reporting posts.This is your way of helping the moderators turf out troublesome posters/trolls and advertisers. Please do not use it for anything other than posts that clearly break the rules listed here. Please note that all reported posts are read and the complaints noted, but mods are under no obligation to respond or agree with your viewpoint. If a post or thread disappears, please do not start a thread asking why - privately ask a moderator or post up a polite request for information in the feedback forum instead.


11. Monomaniacs. 'Sheeple'-accusers, bigoted gun nuts, ranting xenophobes, cut'n'pasters, god-squadders, disruptive 'comical' alter-egos, conspiraloons, fruitloops, small minded bigots etc. are not welcome.


12. Bans. If a user is permanently banned they have two choices:
    1. Apologise profusely to the moderators via the Contact Us page in the hope of being reinstated.
    2. Bugger off forever.
    Temporary bans can be implemented if a poster goes over the top - these usually last from 24hrs to a week. Banned posters trying to sneak back in will be re-banned immediately. Persistent attempts will result in a permanent ban.
    If a poster is banned, please do not start threads demanding an instant, in-depth explanation. Searching through the user's last posts will probably reveal why they were banned, otherwise try politely asking moderator privately instead (although we're under no obligation whatsoever to dedicate time to answering individual requests). Posters who are 'temp banned' on a Friday may well find their ban extended for the whole duration of the weekend. Posters who keep accruing temp bans over a short period can usually expect longer and longer bans for each subsequent offence.


13. Taglines. A tag line is the editable text that appears under your user name. You are not allowed to include URLs, adverts and references to other posters as well as misleading and confusing claims to be banned and/or a mod/admin etc.


14. Avatars. Your avatar is the optional image displayed above your user name in posts, and as a proxy for your name in many other places. The above rules for images also apply to avatars, but are more strictly enforced, which will result in bans for persistent offenders. If in doubt, err on the side of caution.


15. Accounts Unless you have explicit permission from the moderators, you must not register or use more than one account on the Urban75 forums. If you find yourself locked out of the account because your registered email is no longer current, please email boards@urban75.com with your user name, old and new email addresses. Accounts must not be shared with other people.
16. Imposed Ignore Enforced mutual ignore is a last, desperate admin measure to stop long-standing personal conflicts continuing to disrupt threads.
    
    This means that that those put on mutual ignore DO NOT respond, quote, comment or make any reference the other person in their posts, and continuing to do so will result in a warning, eventually leading to an automatic temp ban if they accrue enough warning posts.
    
    It is very much a reluctant measure, but it is taken in the interests of the boards overall, and is only ever introduced after every other admin measure has failed to stop the personal digs and general unpleasantness.
    


17. Legal stuff and Privacy
    1. Libel/defamation. There are civil and criminal laws against certain forms of speech like libel, defamation of character, harassment and threats. Please contact us if you see any such content. It is the prerogative of any poster who feels any laws have been violated to pursue legal action. Posters are responsible for what they post, and should realise there may be serious consequences for illegal behaviour.
    
    
    2. Suicide threats/threats of violence: The admin at urban75 will always contact a poster's ISP if we think there's the remotest chance that they may come to harm/harm others.
    
    
    3. Privacy. Please respect people's privacy and refrain from posting up any personal details without their permission. Remember that anyone can read these boards so never give out any personal details you're uncomfortable sharing with the world and never take people at face value: there's some right dodgy types out there. Please notify the mods if you are being hassled. Do not piss about with user names, deliberately misgender or refer to people by their real names (unless they already appear in their user name, of course).
    
    
    4. Private Conversations (PCs). It is not acceptable to post up the contents of a private conversation on the boards. Anyone using the PC facility to send out abusive, threatening or spamming messages can expect a warning/ban. Please report dodgy PCs to the mods using the Report option under the PC.
    
    
    5. Cookies. See the Urban75 Cookies page for more info on the use of cookies on Urban75
    
    
18. Copyright. Please respect the copyrighted work of others. Note that any material posted on these boards may be archived on the main site. For more info, please read the legal and copyright statements.

    1. You retain full copyright in everything you write on these boards; by posting on urban75 you agree that some material may be archived on the static part of the site, if appropriate (that is, for readers who are lawyers: you grant an indefinite licence to urban75 to reproduce your words, here and only here.).

       This is to ensure that interesting threads are properly archived and read by as many people as possible - and it'll also save us the hassle of having to go around PM'ing everyone individually.

       (Please note: all posts are already automatically archived via the database functionality of the boards.).

       Naturally, urban75 will never, ever seek to profit from this material - if we are approached by someone asking about reproduction rights, we will forward the enquiry directly to the poster(s) concerned.

    
    

    2. Copyright in each post remains with the author of that post; urban75 holds both the "database right" and a separate "compilation" copyright in entire threads and in the boards as a whole.

       This means that we can take action against anyone who rips off chunks of threads, as well as individual posters being able to take action against those who rip off their words.

       In the past, large chunks of the site have been used by newspapers without permission. In future, we will use our rights to protect urban75 content from commercial exploitation without permission and we encourage posters to use theirs.

       Briefly:

       Your posts are yours, you keep copyright in them and no-one can legally use them elsewhere without your permission;

       By posting, you give permission for your post to appear on urban75; and The collection and the database that are urban75 belong to urban75 as a whole.

    
    

These terms may be changed at any time without notice.

Remember: The admin team run this site in their own time and for no profit, so unprovoked or sustained personal attacks may result in a ban - show some respect for their hard work!