The purpose of this "sticky" for all UK forums, is two-fold.

Firstly, it is to remind you that certain standards are expected. It is perhaps easiest to do so by reference to the Terms of Service which you all agreed to be bound by when you registered to use the forum. You can find these here and the short version of the general rules here.

These provide, amongst other things, that you must not:

"upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any content that is unlawful, harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libellous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise objectionable"

Secondly, henceforth, we shall be introducing a "three strikes" system. If, in the view of the moderating team, you breach the Terms of Service, and in particular the section quoted above, you will receive a formal warning.

If you persist in breaching the terms, you will receive further warnings. After three warnings, your posting privileges will be suspended and you will be unable to access the forums for a specified period of time which will be at the discretion of the moderating team. At the sole discretion of the moderating team, if the circumstances are thought to warrant it, your account will be terminated and any or all current or future use of the site refused.

It is accepted that what is "objectionable" is subjective, however moderators will not be drawn into discussion regarding such warnings; nor are they required to justify whatever course of action might be deemed appropriate.

The aim is to try to make the UK forums as friendly and accessible as possible to all members. To that end, a zero-tolerance policy will be instituted in relation to abusive, harassing or otherwise objectionable posts.

You can help achieve this by:

- Avoiding terse posts directing use of the search facility or reading the FAQ. We were all new once and, however common the enquiry might be, it costs nothing to politely suggest that the question has been asked and answered numerous times in the past, and that a search might give them the information that they are looking for.

- If you are unhappy with the contents of a post, please use the report button to notify the moderating team. One of the team will address it as soon as is possible. It may take a little time to do so, depending on when the report is made.

- Please do not resort to tit for tat abusive posting. If you do, you are likely to be considered to be in breach of the Terms of Service as much as the original offender and therefore subject to the same sanction. Provocation is not a justification.

In short - report, don't retort.

It is not the intention to get rid of the banter and the camaraderie that makes this community what it is. On the contrary, it is the small percentage of posts that detract from that otherwise friendly and helpful sense of community which will not be tolerated.

As a result we hope the forum will be a fun place to be, interesting, friendly, with a community atmosphere.

Please work with us to achieve this.