1. Introduction

These are our rules for the use of our message boards on Genes Reunited. They are designed to give you guidance on how to use and behave on our message boards.

Your use of our message boards means that you accept and agree to be bound by the Genes Reunited message board guidelines, which supplements the principles you agreed to in our terms and conditions when you registered with us.

We want this to be a safe, enjoyable and friendly environment for all of our Members. These rules will help provide a framework for our Members in order to achieve this.

Remember, these boards are provided by us, but not controlled by us. We do not pre-screen or actively monitor material contributed by Members and are not responsible for the behaviour or conduct of Members or the content they post on the site. We trust our Members to point out anything that does not conform to these guidelines by using the 'Report as Abuse' button.

2. Inappropriate content

Please do not communicate anything that is, or could be considered to be, vulgar, profane or offensive.

Please do not communicate anything that is, or could be considered, abusive, intimidating, discriminatory, threatening, mean spirited or intended to harass or cause (or be capable of causing) trouble, upset or offence to anyone. Please do not communicate anything that could be considered obscene or pornographic.

Please do not use discriminatory language or images in your communications.

Please do not post anything that could be considered to be racially, ethnically, religiously or sexually discriminatory or offensive, hate related, malicious, derogatory or otherwise objectionable.

Be aware that this is a public forum, and that member's reputations are valuable to them - do not communicate anything that is, or could be considered to be, defamatory, false, unreliable or misleading about any person, business or thing.

Please do not post anything that infringes, or might be considered to infringe, anyone's copyright, trade mark or other intellectual property rights. Please resist taking material that belongs to others.

3. Your general conduct

Your behaviour must at all times be polite.

Please do not engage in predatory conduct or otherwise use the Genes Reunited Service to stalk or harass anyone.

Please do not post anything might appear intimidating to other Members.

Please do not impersonate anyone.

Please do not post, share or otherwise make available information that personally identifies other Members or which includes private information about other Members or people.

Please do not post details of private communication between yourself and other Members.

Please do not communicate material that deviates from the topic of the message board thread - start a new topic if you'd like to.

Please do not submit the same or similar material more than once.

Please do not use multiple log-ins or you will be removed from the site.

Please refrain from advertising any businesses, competitor or other, on the Genes Reunited Message Boards.

Please do not use the service for any business or commercial or charitable purpose, or to promote any alternative commercial service.

Please use the English language.

Please do not include an email address, postal address, phone number or any other personal information about yourself or any other living person in material that appears on the service - where your own personal information is concerned, this can be shared, should you wish, once direct contact has been made by another Member.

Please do not disrupt the normal flow of dialogue, cause a screen to scroll faster than other Members can type, or otherwise act in a manner that negatively affects other users' ability to communicate using the service.

4. Alerting Us

If you see anything on Genes Reunited that appears to breach these guidelines, then please contact us to inform us of it by using the "Report as Abuse" button, or by emailing us at [email protected].

While we actively encourage Members to do this, anyone found to be misusing our Report as Abuse function will receive a warning.

5. Withdrawing Material

We may, at our sole discretion, withdraw any material which appears to breach these rules, or to bring the Genes Reunited service into disrepute - whether based on information received from Members or others, or our own determination.

We reserve the right to edit any post that breaches our terms and conditions or reveals any information we deem too personal.

6. Warnings and Bans

All material reported as abuse will be reviewed by a member of our customer service team and the report will either be upheld or disregarded. Genes Reunited's decision is final.

Dependent on the severity of the abuse report, Members will receive a first warning telling them why their post has been removed and why they are receiving a warning.

Should a Member be reported a second time for abuse they will receive a final warning.

Upon a third report of abuse Members will be permanently banned from the Genes Reunited service.

We reserve the right to ban any member without warning at any time for posting material that we deem inappropriate.

Please respect that if we ban someone from using our message boards this decision is final and we will not allow threads debating our decision on the message boards.

Anyone who has been removed from the site will not be allowed to re-register without our prior consent.

Thank you all for your cooperation