Forum Rules & Usage

[admin - James]

Forum Ethic
Registration Agreement
Forum Guidelines
Advertising In General
Advertising Meets
Advertising Jobs / Business Opportunities
Accounts & Passwords
Signatures
Images
Forum Descriptions
Moving Posts
Off Topic Posting
Moderation
Complaints Procedure
Disclaimer
Contact
Privacy and Security of Personal Information
Harassment & Stalking
Private Messaging

--
v0.1 - 4 June 2004 - First draft
v0.2 - 7 June 2004 - Updated Forum Guidelines (re: dating forum rule)
v0.3 - 15 June 2004 - Updated Disclaimer (re: individual responsibility)
v0.4 - 26 June 2004 - Updated Moving Posts (re: redirect info)
v0.5 - 30 June 2004 - Added Privacy and Security
v0.6 - 30 June 2004 - Added Harassment & Stalking
v0.7 - 12 September 2004 - Modified Contact (re: current primary contact) and altered Accounts & Passwords, Forum Descriptions, Moderation, Complaints Procedure accordingly.
v0.8 - 14 September 2004 - Updated Forum Guidelines (re: aiding and abetting of illegal activities replaces discussion of)
v0.9 - 1 October 2004 - Updated Contact (new primary contact)
v1.0 - 11 October 2004 - Added Private Messaging
v1.1 - 25 January 2005 - Addendum to Advertising Job Vacancies
v1.2 - 25 April 2005 - Added VIP Lounge forum description
v1.2a - 11 November 2007 - Added report private messages

[admin - James]

Forum Ethic

The idea of the site is to provide a forum for British Born Chinese (BBC) and the wider British Chinese community to share experiences and thoughts. We aim to be a community driven site which allows diversity of opinion and respect of diversity in general.

[admin - James]

Registration Agreement

Registration to this forum is free! We do insist that you abide by the rules and policies detailed below. If you agree to the terms, please check the 'I agree' checkbox and press the 'Register' button below. If you would like to cancel the registration, click here to return to the forums index.

Although the administrators and moderators of British Born Chinese Discussion Board will attempt to keep all objectionable messages off this forum, it is impossible for us to review all messages. All messages express the views of the author, and neither the owners of British Born Chinese Discussion Board, nor Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. (developers of vBulletin) will be held responsible for the content of any message.

By agreeing to these rules, you warrant that you will not post any messages that are obscene, vulgar, sexually-orientated, hateful, threatening, or otherwise violative of any laws.

The owners of British Born Chinese Discussion Board reserve the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread for any reason.

[admin - James]

Forum Guidelines

To maintain the forum ethic, we request the following from members;

• Respect from members whilst posting. We will not tolerate personal attacks or insults to others, members or otherwise.
• Messages which are vulgar, obscene, contain excessive swearing, spamming, trolling, racist, homophobic, ageist, sexist, or promote discrimination or hatred of any form, pornographic or link to such material, slanderous, libellous, or those which bring the board into disrepute are not allowed. This is a non-exhaustive list and is intended as a guideline only.
• The usage of the discussion board as a dating forum is strictly prohibited.
• Frivolous multiple account registrations are prohibited. The use of secondary accounts to anonymously attack other members will result in the suspension of member's primary accounts too.
• Aiding and abetting of illegal activities such as software and music piracy and other intellectual property is not allowed.
• Attempting to impersonate an administrator or moderator is prohibited.

Members are also asked to place new threads in the relevant forums by reading forum descriptions first, prior to posting. New members are strongly suggested to read previous threads and browse forums to become familiar with general etiquette.

This is an incomplete list - further guidelines are listed below.

[admin - James]

Advertising In General

The discussion board does not permit classified or commercial advertising or referral schemes in general.

Examples of classified ads are rooms to let, goods to sell or exchange.
Examples of commercial ads are promotion of business, selling good and services.
Examples of referral schemes are making posts inviting members to submit their personal details in hope of gaining a product or service.

Posts where the motive is obviously for advertising, not specifically but especially for personal gain, will be removed. Posts (including signatures) which link to personal homepages and blogs are permitted but not if they are advertising products or services for personal gains. In addition, any person who registers on this discussion board with the specific purpose of posting advertising commercial advertising will risk having their accounts suspended *immediately* with no formal warnings.

We acknowledge that the subject of advertising is very broad. The primary purpose of the discussion board is to share experiences and promote discussion to the community. Because of this, it is our desire to prevent this resource becoming a flyposting arena, thus diluting our primary purpose.

[admin - James]

Advertising Meets

The managers of the British Born Chinese website encourage the development of off-line activities.

Please note the following types of meeting are not permitted;

• Meetings which are discriminatory - on the grounds of race, gender, age, sexual orientation or other such criteria.
• Meetings which are arranged for commercial gain.
• Meetings which are intended to include sexual activity or illegal activities.
• Meetings which are held in private residences.
• Meetings which would bring the British Born Chinese website into disrepute.

In all cases the website managers reserve the right not to publish details of meetings, and the decision of the website managers is final. No correspondence will be entered into.

We request that all details of meets to be placed in the Meeting Point forum. An exception to this are those events which affect the wider community - these will be placed in the Support Your Community forum. Date, location and event must be included. If this information has not yet been decided, then use the Meet Planning forum.

Each individual event requires a new thread. Please do not hijack one thread to publicise another event. Posts which do so will be removed.

When meeting people through the internet;

• Ensure that friends or relatives know where you are going.
• Always meet in a public place.
• Where possible go with a friend.

[admin - James]

Advertising Jobs / Business Opportunities

We permit some jobs to be advertised provided they detail the following;

• Contact and Company Name
• Full job description
• Address for applications and closing date

Posts which provide links to those company's websites which details these opportunities will be considered favourably for their validity.

In all cases the website managers reserve the right not to publish details of jobs and business opportunities, and the decision of the website managers is final. No correspondence will be entered into.

We do not permit posts which involve employee referral schemes. As mentioned, the primary purpose of the discussion board is to share experiences and promote discussion to the community. Because of this, it is our desire to prevent this resource becoming a flyposting arena, thus diluting our primary purpose.

Addendum 25/01/05

We acknowledge that some board members wish to retain their right to anonymity when publicising details of available positions within their company.

If a member feels that their real life identity could be compromised by revealing details of the company contact details in the job posting, they should contact a member of the moderation team who may post the vacancy on the member's behalf, provided that the vacancy satisfies the criteria as stated above.

[admin - James]

Accounts & Passwords

We recognise that some members wish to keep their anonymity whilst posting personal information, therefore in that respect, multiple account registrations are permitted. However, frivolous multiple account registrations are not. We also forbid the use of anonymous proxy servers for registering accounts.

The use of secondary accounts to anonymously attack other member will result in the suspension of member's primary accounts also.

Upon registration or change of email address, you will be sent an email to activate (or reactivate) your account. This email will contain a link or instructions on how to do so. If you do not receive this email, then contact us so that we can rectify this problem. Please do not reregister as this creates unnecessary waste. If you have created accounts for this reason, please let us know, so that we may remove them from the system.

If you forget your password then you can reset your password using the following link:
Lost Password Recovery Form
If you do not receive the email for resetting your password, please contact us directly so that we may reset your password manually.

It is important that email addresses are kept valid at all times, as we may need to convey important information to you in a method independent of the discussion board.

[admin - James]

Signatures

Rules for posting apply equally to signatures. We would ask that members keep signatures short and images small for the benefit of other readers.

[admin - James]

Images

Please do not hotlink images to third party websites. "Hotlinking" is the practice where images are displayed in messages. This is achieved by using the BB code [ IMG ][ /IMG ], or HTML code <img src="">.

Such practice is often regarded as stealing bandwidth. Member's need to respect the bandwidth of other users and other sites.

If you want to refer to an image on another site, you must copy that image to webspace you own, and then hotlink to your private copy. Please respect copyrights, and give links to original articles.

If you do not own webspace, then use the vb code [ URL ][ /URL ] or HTML code <a href=""> instead of the above. This provides a link to the image, rather than it being hotlinked.

[admin - James]

Forum Descriptions

Here are the descriptions to the forum. Please choose the most relevant forum when deciding to start a new thread. Please do not repost across multiple forums.

Announcements

• Announcements from the administrators and important information regarding the management of the discussion board.

Feedback & Support

• Questions for the management team.
• Suggestions and feedback for the discussion board and website.
• Technical issues with your account or the discussion board.
• Please start a new thread for each issue.
• Please keep on topic.

Community Resources & FAQ

• Archive of community resources.
• Only administrators and moderators may post in here.

Meeting Point

• Confirmed meets and socials only.
• Please specify event, date and location.
• Please read Advertising Meets guidelines.
• No commercial advertisements.
• Strictly no thread hijacking, please start a new thread for each meet or event.
• Please use the Meet Planning & Feedback forum for post event feedback.
• Please keep on topic.
• If you are unsure of the validity of your thread, please contact us prior to posting.

Meet Planning & Feedback

• Planning of meets not yet fully confirmed on date, location and schedule.
• Gauge potential interest on possible ideas for a meet.
• Feedback of past events.
• Please do not give details of commercial events, as this will constitute commercial advertising.
• Please keep on topic.

Local & World Service

• Local forum for BBCs and Chinese communities in the UK and abroad.
• Seek BBCs and other members local to your area.
• Please do not thread hijack, start a new thread for each location.
• Please keep on topic.

Support Your Community

• Announce community related projects or upcoming charity events.
• Please give as much detail as possible, including contact details whenever possible.
• We will allow commercial projects to be advertised, as long as they are related to and benefiting the community.
• Seek volunteers for your research or community project.
• Strictly no thread hijacking, please start a new thread for each project.
• Please keep on topic.
• If you are unsure of the validity of your thread, please contact us prior to posting.

Speaker's Corner

• Serious discussion and topical debate.
• Please keep on topic.
• Please use the Chit Chat forum for idle banter.

The Polling Booth

• Vote on topical issues.
• Only administrators and moderators may post in here.

ID Parade

• Share and discuss your experiences and thoughts about being ethnic Chinese.
• Topics on culture, growing up, way of life, traditions, superstitions and so on.
• Talk about the Chinese stereotype and racism.
• Please keep on topic.
• Please use the Chit Chat forum for idle banter.

The Job Club

• Job related issues and developing you career.
• Help with CV and job applications.
• Discuss about opportunities for working abroad.
• Please read Advertising Jobs / Business Opportunities.
• Strictly no employee referrals.
• Please keep on topic.
• If you are unsure of the validity of your thread, please contact us prior to posting.

Hello

• If you're new to the boards say Hi here for a community welcome.
• If you're unfamiliar with the layout and want to ask a newbie style question.
• Existing members are asked to be sympathetic and welcoming to new members.

General

• If your thread doesn't fit in any of the other forums, put it here as a last resort.
• Please keep on topic.
• Please use the Chit Chat forum for idle banter.

Chit Chat

• Non important conversations to while the time away.
• Off topic posting allowed, but no spamming please.

VIP Lounge

• A special forum for VIP Members only
• Please see the following announcement for details on becoming a VIP members and supporting the discussion board.

The Lighter Side

• Topics that are generally entertaining.
• Share jokes and spread some humour.
• Links to humorous websites, or snippets of funny news items.
• Comedy sketches and song parodies.
• Please keep on topic.
• Please do not post rude, vulgar, obscene, racist, homophobic jokes.

Caption Challenge

• Give a funny caption to these photos.
• Please keep on topic.
• Please read Images.
• Please do not hotlink images.

The Shoulder

• Have an insurmountable problem or need a shoulder to lean on? Here's where the BBC community rally round.
• Please keep on topic.
• Please respond sympathetically to members in distress.
• Please respect personal information and the privacy of individuals.

Yen Wang's Register

• What would you give Yen Wang "King of Hell" to keep? Tell us what you hate in a light hearted rant.
• Please keep on topic.
• Please refrain from the use of vulgar and obscene language.

The Study

• For students and young people.
• Topics regarding courses, schools, colleges and universities.
• Seek other members at the same education institution.
• Questions about learning Chinese or other languages and skills.
• Discussion regarding further education, masters, PhDs and MBAs.
• Help for translating Chinese.
• Please keep on topic.

Light Entertainment

• Films, TV, music, books and theatre.
• General discussion about all things showbiz.
• Please keep on topic.

Talk Sport

• Talk sport and get fit, from football to fly fishing.
• Topics include martial arts, and gym regimes.
• Please keep on topic.

Yin

• Health, fashion and beauty.
• Please keep on topic.

Food For Thought

• For those who like to talk about, as well as eat food.
• You may exchange recipes here, but respect copyrights please.
• Reviews of eating establishments and comments on dishes.
• Please keep on topic.

Technology Forum

• Compare the latest computers, mobile phones and gadgetry.
• Talk about photography and computer games.
• Seek assistance for your tech problems.
• Please keep on topic.

Traveller's Tales

• Going somewhere and want the low down, or just come back and want to spill the beans.
• Everything related to travel.
• Please keep on topic.

Cars & Bikes

• Discussion related to motor vehicles.
• Get the lowdown on insurance and share maintenance tips.
• Please keep on topic.

[admin - James]

Moving Posts

From time to time, the admin and moderation team may move threads from one forum to another. This is so that related topics can be found much more easily. We appreciate that this may be confusing, but this is for the benefit of all who use this discussion board.

We are extremely limited in human resources to ensure that threads are placed in the correct forums. Therefore it would helpful that members help us by posting threads in the correct forum to begin with.

When we move posts, we will do so such that a redirect remains in the original forum that it has been posted in. This will be indicated as the title of the thread will be prepended with the text "Moved:". From time to time, redirects older than 7 days will be removed, therefore members need to check the destination forum after a thread has been moved.

[admin - James]

Off Topic Posting

Members are asked to keep threads on topic. If the trail of discussion goes on a tangent then start a new thread. The only forum in which off topic posting is allowed is the Chit Chat forum.

Apart from the Chit Chat forum, please make an effort to make posts worthy. If you feel that a thread is a two way conversation of no particular value, or has limited scope for general input then please use the PM functionality to correspond with each other directly.

We are very restricted in financial resources to maintain the bandwidth resources on this discussion board. Whilst the database size is not massive, it is reasonably big to take several hours to backup on the basic tools we have available. Human resources are extremely limited too, to ensure that posts do not break forum rules. This is a plea for all members to consider this guideline before posting. We would hope conversational posts between members to take place via PM, and usage of the board remains for discussion and informative posts.

[admin - James]

Moderation

The Moderation Team of the British Born Chinese website are run by a small group of volunteers. Because of this and the large number of posts made every day, it is extremely difficult to ensure that all members abide by the rules and guidelines without help from the members themselves. We encourage members to report posts and members to the Moderation Team when they feel the Forum Rules & Usages have been broken.

To Report A Post

1. Click this image on the post that is required for the attention of the Moderation Team.
2. In the Report Bad Post message post, indicate the rule infringement and suggest action to be taken.

Once a post has been reported, the Administrators and Moderators are emailled. Depending upon the nature of the incident, action may or may not be taken, and other Moderators may or may not be consulted. Usually if it a serious matter, the thread will be removed pending a review and discussion by the Moderation Team.

Those significantly involved with the post will be informed via email or PM of the decision of the Moderation Team. However, where a whole thread is removed, it may not be practicable to inform all those who participated on that thread.

If a reported post involves that of a Moderator or of the Admin team then that individual may not take part in any subsequent discussion for the remedy of that incident.

Consequences Of Moderation

No Action
Posts Edited
Threads Truncated
Threads Removed
Threads Moved
Threads Split
Members Warned
Members Temporarily Suspended
Members Permanently Suspended

This is an incomplete list to possible action that may be taken. The remit of the Moderation Team involves any action required to remedy the incident.

Depending upon the type of incident and its severity, members will be reminded, warned or suspended. A member's past will be taken into consideration before the Moderation Team decide a formal response.

Right of Appeal

Threads are never deleted, they are moved to Moderator only forums. If members feel they have been unfairly treated, or whether they consider the moderation action to be unfair, then they may appeal to the Current Primary Contact or the Editor directly.

[admin - James]

Complaints Procedure

The management and volunteers of the British Born Chinese website take every care possible to ensure that material posted on this site is accurate and respects individuals. If you feel that there is a breach in policy, especially, but not exclusively, in the interactive areas of the site, then the following procedure can be followed:

1. If you are a member of the discussion board, then click this image to report a post. If you are not then email us instead.

In each instance, please detail the following:

• the nature of the complaint
• the location on the site of the offending material
• the action you are requesting to redress the complaint

2. We will then respond to you as soon as is reasonably possible. This will normally occur on the same day, but may however be up to a few days. We will indicate what action we will undertake to remedy the situation, and give a reason for our actions.

3. If we do not hear back within 10 days of the response, we will deem that the complaint to be satisfactorily dealt with, and will close the file on the complaint.

The management of the site reserve the right not to enter into correspondence with regards to complaints beyond that described in point 2 above.