Rules

The forum exists to provide a warm, friendly atmosphere for the community of people who are involved with rescue dogs in any shape or form. Much like a real community, virtual community basic guidelines help to ensure a sense of community and respect for fellow members.

By joining and participating in our community you are affirming your willingness to adhere to and respect these guidelines.

General Terms and conditions of the forum.

Liability
Under no circumstances will the Administrators or owners be liable for any of the following losses or damage (whether such losses where foreseen, foreseeable, known or otherwise): ( a ) loss of data; ( b ) loss of revenue or anticipated profits; ( c ) loss of business; ( d ) loss of opportunity; ( e ) loss of goodwill or injury to reputation; ( f ) losses suffered by third parties; or ( g ) any indirect, consequential, special or exemplary damages arising from the use of this forum regardless of the form of action.

Respect For Other Members
As with any community, opinions and experiences will vary. Occasionally there will be conflicts that arise and we would ask members to be courteous when disagreeing with other members. It is possible to disagree without being insulting or rude and to agree to disagree. One of the main criteria of remaining on the forum is that each member will have a supportive role (either by helping or offering constructive criticism in a positive way).

If you are going to refer to a person/people in the third party then please explain your posts in full. If for example you post "is fed up with some people cos they are getting on my nerves" then please explain that you mean the people in the office, or on the bus or whatever.
If you feel the need to post a non-direct "moan" about someone who is either on this forum or off then please post it on your own facebook page and not on here.

If any posts appear which do not follow the rules they will be removed.

Flaming - Personal attacks, commonly known as flaming, are posts which are designed to personally berate or insult another. Text of this nature is not beneficial to the community spirit and will not be tolerated

Moderators/Admin - Please be respectful in both the forums and any private communications with moderators or admin. Moderators/Admin are volunteers that donate many, many hours of their own time to help ensure that this forum functions for it's members. Likewise, Members should expect the same courtesy from moderators and administrators in all forum communication.

Profanities
We encourage you to use forum as a forum to debate topics, but please use proper adjectives to express yourself. We do not tolerate inappropriate language.

Signatures
Signatures may contain up to Three lines of text/spacer lines (of small or normal size) be no more than 300 characters in length and/or one image. Graphics are at the discretion of the Ratcage team and should be forwarded to a moderator for approval prior to inclusion in a signature.
Text sizes should be between 75% and 100% (small and normal).
Links in signatures are permitted to a maximum of one unique page or site. You may not link to porn or political, racist or other similar hate sites.

Signatures breaching these guidelines will be deleted and the Member informed accordingly.

Avatars
Avatars are to be no larger than 160 pixels square and no larger than 50 KB. The following file types are allowed: .gif .jpeg .jpg .png .bmp
Avatars are subject to the same conditions as posts with respect to decency.

What you should do if you see objectionable material on the forums
- It is important that members recognise the real-time nature of this forum: the moderators cannot always monitor the contents of posted messages, and as such depend upon you to inform them when participants or their messages are violating our policy as stated here. You must also recognise that they cannot respond immediately to such notices and that some time may pass before any warranted action is taken.

Contacting a moderator
To contact a moderator PM one of the admin team - Ria, Phil or Jackie.


Editing Posts
Forum allows posts to be edited by the poster up to 10 minutes after posting to allow for adjustments or corrections. Amendments cannot be made after that time except by admin and only in exceptional circumstances. It is important therefore that the poster proofs any messages prior to posting.
Members who retrospectively delete images hosted elsewhere with a view to spoiling a thread for other members will be subject to the three strike rule or an escalation with an instant ban.
Use of red text in posts is for moderators only to identify any changes made by moderators or messages or comments that moderators wish to add to an individual post.

Keeping your account secure
It is against the rules to post as someone else or to edit anyone's posts unless it is necessary for moderation by admin and mods.
If you should post as someone else in error you MUST either edit your post (if possible) or put up another post in your own name and explain the error.
Misusing accounts will be dealt with seriously and a ban may be issued under the moderation system.

Policing - three strike rule
The forum is based upon a community spirit that fosters friendship and understanding of others and the guidelines that we all work within to maintain our community.
Should members repeatedly ignore the guidelines then the moderators will follow a "three strike" policy to ensure that the members community guidelines are respected and the community continues to function in harmony. It should be stressed that we hope that the usage of such actions will be strictly as a last resort and that such actions will be avoided by understanding by all members.
Users will be warned a maximum of three times for any and all offences. If the need arises for a fourth warning a temporary ban will be put in place of between 1 to 7 days. At the Administrators discretion Bans will be permanent. Disputes which cannot be resolved between members may be arbitrated by the forum administrators.
Any attempt to circumvent a temporary ban will lead to that ban being made permanent. Circumvention includes re-registering under a non-banned username, changing IP addresses to evade an IP ban, registering a new e-mail account to evade an e-mail ban. Multiple accounts and/or multiple logins, whether in the same name or different names, are not permitted. If you use multiple logins for any purpose you will have action taken against all your accounts

Changes to Rules, Guidelines and Policies
Forum may change these terms at any time by posting changes online. Please review these terms regularly to ensure you are aware of any changes made. Your continued use of this website after changes are posted means you agree to be legally bound by these terms as updated and/or amended.

The views expressed in this forum are of the individual members of the public and are not necessarily those of the owners, operators or administrators .