By posting on this board you agree to abide by the following

Parents of disabled children provides a place for members and their families to share experiences, questions and ideas and gain support from others who are dealing with similar circumstances.
We reserve the right to remove posts or threads if they are deemed to breach any forum rules as outlined here.
Personal information
We understand that Parents posting on the site may want anonymity. Therefore it is OK to use pseudonyms for your user name. For similar reasons it is also a forum rule that you should not post your personal address, email or phone number on the forums. If you would like to contact other forum members please use the Private message (PM) facility.
Any posts containing addresses or phone numbers will be deleted. However behind the scenes we do need you to register using your genuine email address so we do not allow certain email addresses that allow you to mask your identity. Parents of disabled children will not pass on your email address to anyone.
Advertising/Commercial/Educational use
Parent to parent recommendations of products is acceptable and encouraged but any hint of commercially driven posting and the posts will be removed and your account banned or a warning issued.
We have an area for parents to sell second hand items but this can only be used by members who are established and with at least 10 posts as we dont want to encourage people to post to make money and not participate in the forum.
Any posts which do not adhere to the above will be removed and should the post be reposted the account maybe subject to a warning or ban.
You can not use the Forum to ask for volunteers for professional research studies without the prior written consent of Parents of disabled children.
Signatures
We allow members to have a signature we ask that these signatures are used to tell members about your family or similar information,we do not allow commercial links for the purpose of advertising to be used.
Should you signature not comply with this your signature will be removed and you will recieve a warning/ban.

Private message and private email system
Private Messaging and private emails should be treated exactly as they are described – private. For this reason, the following rules apply to Private Messaging and emails:

• never send unsolicited Private Messages (PM) or emails – you must always gain the member's permission before sending a PM, unless you have a specific need to contact a member quickly or discreetly
• the only exception to this rule is when a member has explicitly requested PM replies or emails
• the contents of any PM or email, in whole or in part, should never be disclosed publicly, either on this forum or elsewhere

Inappropriate content
Profane language
The use of profanity will always carry a 'Warning'. Importantly, deliberately using your own masking of profanity (such as asterisks or other punctuation) to bypass our profanity filter is prohibited and will result in the same action as if the actual word had been typed. We request that you report any profane language that has not been detected by our filters immediately to the moderators by clicking the ‘Report Post’ symbol in the title bar of any post.
Spamming
Spamming is entirely prohibited. Spam includes the posting of non-relevant content, URL links, repetitive posting of nonsensical posts, and unauthorised advertising within the forums. We request that you report any spam immediately to the moderators by clicking the ‘Report Post’ symbol in the title bar of any post.
Flaming
Flaming is personally attacking another member with belittling, insulting or threatening content. Flaming is very unwelcome and will be subject to moderation and potentially incur a strike or ban. We request that you report any flaming immediately to the moderators by clicking the ‘Report Post’ symbol in the title bar of any post.
Trolling
Trolling is to post content that is deliberately designed for the purpose of angering and insulting other members. Posts of this nature are disruptive and do not convey a friendly attitude – again, posts such as these are unwelcome and will be subject to moderation and potentially incur a strike or ban. We request that you report any trolling immediately to the moderators by clicking the ‘Report Post’ symbol in the title bar of any post.
Arguing and ‘ranting’
Members must not engage in one-to-one arguments, disagreements or disputes of a personal nature. Neither should members engage in ‘ranting’ – this is the publishing of long, aggressive posts that serve only to aggravate members and add little or nothing to the original question posted. Both arguing and ranting are unwelcome and will be subject to moderation and potentially incur a strike or ban. We request that you report any arguing or ranting immediately to the moderators by clicking the ‘Report Post’ symbol in the title bar of any post.

Text Language

Please avoid using text abbreviations as not everyone knows what they stand for example Later instead of later.

Do not post
- Pornographic images of any kind or links of any kind
- Links to illegal discussion or activity (I.e Encourage benefit fraud)
- Messages that are classed as spam or provocative
- Swearing, and do not circumvent the swear filters in place
- Religious, Racist or Controversial topics or reply's
- Private Individuals personal information (Phone Numbers/Addresses/Photos etc) without their prior permission
- Personal attacks against others, including "naming and shaming


Administrators & moderators

Moderators and Administrators will access the Forums in order to help ensure that other members are adhering to the rules and policies stated here.

The structure of Parents of disabled children's administration and moderation team is as follows:

Administrators -

Administrators oversee developments to the forums and to support members with any issues they might encounter whilst using the forums.

In addition to the rights and permissions of moderators, administrators can edit members’ details and edit, move and delete the forums themselves.
Your administrators are:

Daniel
Lucy

Moderators – are members who volunteer to help with the smooth running of the forums and enforcement of these policies.

Moderators are long-standing members of the community, who offer their time and effort to keeping forum usage and content under control. The moderators have the rights and permissions to edit, move and delete threads or posts.

Your moderators are:

Corinne

Warnings and bans

Warning and bans are given when members: post inappropriate content;Make irelevant posts not related to the posts on the forum on a regular basis in order to simply up the post count; spam the forums; send unsolicited Private Messages; or otherwise abuse the Rules of the forum.

Any strikes or bans given are not to be discussed on the forum. Such matters shall remain private between Parents of disabled children and the member. Questions or comments concerning warnings, strikes or bans will be conveyed through e-mail or Private Messages.

Escalating moderator decisions
Discussions regarding moderator decisions are not permitted on the forum. In the first instance, please send a PM to the moderator if you disagree with any decisions made.

If you have further questions regarding the moderation of a post or thread, or would like the administrators to arbitrate any decisions made by the moderators, please email daniel@parentsofdisabledchildren.co.uk or send a Private Message to any of the Admin team.

Should we find a breach of the above rules we reserve the right to take the following action:

1)Ban your account
2)Suspend posting previleges for a set time period.
3)Issue a warning.
4)Moderate your posts for a period to be decided by forum admins.