Guidelines

Introduction

These terms and conditions apply between you, the User of this Website (including any sub-domains, unless expressly excluded by their own terms and conditions), and Pets Forum, the owner and operator of this Website. Please read these terms and conditions carefully, as they affect your legal rights. Your agreement to comply with and be bound by these terms and conditions is deemed to occur upon your first use of the Website. If you do not agree to be bound by these terms and conditions, you should stop using the Website immediately.

In these terms and conditions, User or Users means any third party that accesses the Website and is not either (i) employed by Pets Forum and acting in the course of their employment or (ii) engaged as a consultant or otherwise providing services to Pets Forum and accessing the Website in connection with the provision of such services.

Intellectual property and acceptable use

1. All Content included on the Website is the property of Pets Forum, our affiliates or other relevant third parties. In these terms and conditions, Content means any text, graphics, images, audio, video, software, data compilations, page layout, underlying code and software and any other form of information capable of being stored in a computer that appears on or forms part of this Website, including any such content uploaded/submitted by Users. By continuing to use the Website you acknowledge that such Content is protected by copyright, trademarks, database rights and other intellectual property rights. Nothing on this site shall be construed as granting, by implication, estoppel, or otherwise, any license or right to use any trademark, logo or service mark displayed on the site without the owner's prior written permission.

2. You may, for your own personal, non-commercial use only, do the following:

• retrieve, display and view the Content on a computer screen
• download and store the Content in electronic form on a disk (but not on any server or other storage device connected to a network)
• print one copy of the Content

3. You must not otherwise reproduce, modify, copy, distribute or use for commercial purposes any Content without the written permission of Pets Forum.

4. You acknowledge that you are responsible for any Content you may submit via the Website, including the legality, reliability, appropriateness, originality and copyright of any such Content. You may not upload to, distribute or otherwise publish through the Website any Content that (i) is confidential, proprietary, false, fraudulent, libelous, defamatory, obscene, threatening, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, infringing on intellectual property rights, abusive, illegal or otherwise objectionable; (ii) may constitute or encourage a criminal offense, violate the rights of any party or otherwise give rise to liability or violate any law; or (iii) may contain software viruses, political campaigning, chain letters, mass mailings, or any form of "spam." You may not use a false email address or other identifying information, impersonate any person or entity or otherwise mislead as to the origin of any content. You may not upload commercial content onto the Website.

5. You represent and warrant that you own or otherwise control all the rights to the Content you post; that the Content is accurate; that use of the Content you supply does not violate any provision of these terms and conditions and will not cause injury to any person; and that you will indemnify Pets Forum for all claims resulting from Content you supply.

Prohibited use

6. You may not use the Website for any of the following purposes:

• in any way which causes, or may cause, damage to the Website or interferes with any other person's use or enjoyment of the Website;
• in any way which is harmful, unlawful, illegal, abusive, harassing, threatening or otherwise objectionable or in breach of any applicable law, regulation, or governmental order;
• making, transmitting or storing electronic copies of Content protected by copyright without the permission of the owner.

Registration

7. You must ensure that the details provided by you on registration or at any time are correct and complete.

8. You must inform us immediately of any changes to the information that you provide when registering by updating your personal details to ensure we can communicate with you effectively.

9. We may suspend or cancel your registration with immediate effect for any reasonable purposes or if you breach these terms and conditions.

10. You may cancel your registration at any time by informing us in writing to the address at the end of these terms and conditions or using our Contact Us form. If you do so, you must immediately stop using the Website. Cancellation or suspension of your registration does not affect any statutory rights.

Password and security

11. When you register on this Website, you will be asked to create a password, which you should keep confidential and not disclose or share with anyone.

12. If we have reason to believe that there is or is likely to be any misuse of the Website or breach of security, we may require you to change your password or suspend your account.

Links to other websites

13. This Website may contain links to other sites. Unless expressly stated, these sites are not under the control of Pets Forum or of our affiliates.

14. We assume no responsibility for the content of such Websites and disclaim liability for any and all forms of loss or damage arising out of the use of them.

15. The inclusion of a link to another site on this Website does not imply any endorsement of the sites themselves or of those in control of them.

Privacy Policy

16. Use of the Website is also governed by our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated into these terms and conditions by this reference. To view the Privacy Policy, please click here.

Availability of the Website and disclaimers

17. Any online facilities, tools, services or information that Pets Forum makes available through the Website (the Service) is provided "as is" and on an "as available" basis. We give no warranty that the Service will be free of defects and/or faults. To the maximum extent permitted by the law, we provide no warranties (express or implied) of fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy of the information, compatibility and satisfactory quality. Pets Forum is under no obligation to update information on the Website.

18. Whilst Pets Forum uses reasonable endeavors to ensure that the Website is secure and free of errors, viruses and other malware, we give no warranty or guarantee in that regard and all Users take responsibility for their own security, that of their personal details and their computers.

19. Pets Forum accepts no liability for any disruption or non-availability of the Website.

20. Pets Forum reserves the right to alter, suspend or discontinue any part (or the whole of) the Website including, but not limited to, any products and/or services available. These terms and conditions shall continue to apply to any modified version of the Website unless it is expressly stated otherwise.

Limitation of liability

21. Nothing in these terms and conditions will: (a) limit or exclude our or your liability for death or personal injury resulting from our or your negligence, as applicable; (b) limit or exclude our or your liability for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation; or © limit or exclude any of our or your liabilities in any way that is not permitted under applicable law.

22. We will not be liable to you in respect of any losses arising out of events beyond our reasonable control.

23. To the maximum extent permitted by law, Pets Forum accepts no liability for any of the following:

• any business losses, such as loss of profits, income, revenue, anticipated savings, business, contracts, goodwill or commercial opportunities;
• loss or corruption of any data, database or software;
• any special, indirect or consequential loss or damage.

General

24. You may not transfer any of your rights under these terms and conditions to any other person. We may transfer our rights under these terms and conditions where we reasonably believe your rights will not be affected.

25. These terms and conditions may be varied by us from time to time. Such revised terms will apply to the Website from the date of publication. Users should check the terms and conditions regularly to ensure familiarity with the then current version.

26. These terms and conditions together with the Privacy Policy contain the whole agreement between the parties relating to its subject matter and supersede all prior discussions, arrangements or agreements that might have taken place in relation to the terms and conditions.

27. The Contracts (Rights of Third Parties) Act 1999 shall not apply to these terms and conditions and no third party will have any right to enforce or rely on any provision of these terms and conditions.

28. If any court or competent authority finds that any provision of these terms and conditions (or part of any provision) is invalid, illegal or unenforceable, that provision or part-provision will, to the extent required, be deemed to be deleted, and the validity and enforceability of the other provisions of these terms and conditions will not be affected.

29. Unless otherwise agreed, no delay, act or omission by a party in exercising any right or remedy will be deemed a waiver of that, or any other, right or remedy.

30. This Agreement shall be governed by and interpreted according to the law of England and Wales and all disputes arising under the Agreement (including non-contractual disputes or claims) shall be subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English and Welsh courts.

Pets Forum details

31. You can contact Pets Forum by email at [email protected].

Using the site

• We reserve the right at any time to alter the site whether it be with regards to functionality, features, design or in any other way we see fit. Where possible fair notice will be provided to the users, however this cannot be guaranteed.
• Pets Forum cannot be held responsible for content submitted by users or actions taken by users whether online or offline. By using the service you acknowledge that you may be exposed to content or actions that you may find offensive, Obscene or questionable and you use this service at your own risk.
• Pets Forum is not a data storage service. Should user-submitted content be lost for any reason, we cannot be held responsible. We encourage users to be diligent and backup their own content to avoid loss.
• Pets Forum reserves the right to terminate, limit or alter user accounts as and when deemed necessary by the owner or staff. User submissions on the site can be altered or removed at any time without warning if said submissions do not fall in line with the Terms & conditions of use or related policies.
• Pets Forum cannot be held responsible for site loading issues related to users browsers configurations or add-ons that filter incoming data from the site that may make elements display improperly.

Expectations of users

• Users are to contribute to the community in a positive fashion and maintain a good level of professionalism.
• Users are to abide by any and all rules and policies on Pets Forum laid out by the owners.
• Users are to treat each other with respect and understanding.
• Users are to respect the site staff and owners.
• Users are NOT to cause trouble on the site in any way shape or form, this also extends to any of the sites external services.
• Users are NOT to promote and advertise their own services within the open forum unless with express permission from the site owners.
• Users are NOT to copy any of the site-owned assets or media within.
• Users are NOT to create multiple accounts. Having multiple accounts can get you banned.
• Users are NOT to Abuse or intimidate other users in any way. Doing so will be an immediate ban from the site and related services.
• Users are NOT to misrepresent themselves as site staff or the owners in any way shape or form, doing so will be an immediate ban from the site and related services.
• Users are NOT to plagiarize content from other sources. While Pets Forum takes no responsibility for these actions, we take a very dim view on plagiarism and this will lead to a reprimand or banning from the site and related services.
• Users are NOT to post content of an inappropriate nature. This includes the posting of Abusive, Pornographic, Obscene or otherwise Offensive content.
• Users are NOT to link to external inappropriate content. This includes the posting of Abusive, Pornographic, Obscene or otherwise Offensive content.
• Users are NOT to promote or discuss methods of piracy of any kind.
• Users are NOT to post or discuss content related to politics.

Content Ownership

All content and user submissions on Pets Forum that is deemed legal by the site's Terms Of Service and any other applicable site policies become the property of Pets Forum. We reserve the right on a perpetual basis to display, publish, copy, store, and use all content and submissions made by the users of Pets Forum as we see fit.

Content Submission Etiquette

• Users are to submit content in English Only. We do not have the facilities to cater to other languages and we need to make sure that site is easily usable for the majority of users. Please note that outside-sourced articles whether it be news or otherwise can be posted in a foreign language but we ask that a translation to English is also provided.
• We expect that all submissions are made with a good level of English, punctuation and spelling where possible. We do not expect users to be perfect, but we do expect a good level of English to be used to make sure that all submissions are easily readable by other community users.
• We expect all submissions to be clear and concise, as such we do not expect there to be excessive use of internet jargon, memes or emoticons.
• No excessive swearing/foul language. Swearing and foul language use will be masked using asterisk symbols (****), however in order to maintain a professional atmosphere with clean easy-to-read posts we do not allow the excessive use of swearing, masked or otherwise. Excessive uses will be met with a warning or future infraction should the issue persist.
• We expect that all file submissions in the form of attachments or otherwise be free of viruses, malware or other malicious content. Users found deliberately spreading the aforementioned will be banned.

Account Deletions

We respect that users may wish to delete their accounts from the Pets Forum site. If you wish for your account to be deleted, please use our Contact form and request ''Account Deletion''. We will endeavor to carry out this task within 7 working days.

Please note that while we will delete accounts, the user content (non-personally identifiable content) submitted from the said account will remain as per our policies. All leftover content will appear under a ''Guest'' account.

Infractions & Warnings

When necessary the owner and staff of Pets Forum will issue Warnings/Infractions to users if they move beyond the confines of the Terms & Conditions of use. Within the realm of fairness, we will endeavor to speak with a user via a PM (Private Message) warning to rectify the situation prior to any official warning or infractions being issued. Should the issue persist or the user ignores the advice given in the PM warning then official warnings and Infractions will be issued as necessary until the issue is resolved or the user is banned from Pets Forum.

Every user has an Infraction point limit. This limit is set at 20 points. Once a user has hit the 20-point limit through accrued infractions then the account will be automatically banned. As an additional threshold, users have an overall Infraction limit of 12. Should a user accrue 12 Infractions, they will be automatically banned. Please note that you can be banned from accruing either 20 Infraction points or 12 Infractions, whichever comes first.

Please note that you can be banned immediately without warning for Spamming, Advertising, Obscene Content, Racism, Sexism or Threatening Behaviour.

Ban Appeals

If you have been banned from Pets Forum and you feel it unfair, you can appeal your ban by using the Contact form and selecting ''Ban Appeal'' and submitting your case to us. Please note that unbanning is done at our sole discretion and not all appeals will be successful.