Forum

Forum Rules and Guidelines

Aims of this Forum

This Forum is run by the Graduate Union of the University of Cambridge as a service to our members and potential future members. Its aims include (but are not limited to) the following:

• To support applicants for graduate study in the University, by answering questions and enabling informal discussion
• To provide a channel for informal communication between the Graduate Union and its members on all aspects of its work
• To stimulate discussion of issues affecting graduate students in Cambridge
• To allow GU members to post wanted and for sale notices for the attention of other GU members

Free speech is important to us and we aim to keep moderator intervention to a minimum. However, the forum will best meet its objectives when some basic rules are adhered to.

General Rules – Unacceptable Content

Before posting to the forum, you should check that the content of your post does not fall into any of the following categories.

Please also refer to the guidelines and forum-specific rules below.

These rules are not imposed by us but by the following organisations (which supply our network connection) - if you would like further information about these restrictions, please refer to the following links.

• Student-Run Computing Facility (SRCF) – SRCF acceptable use policy
• Cambridge University Data Network (CUDN) – Information Strategy and Services Syndicate rules and guidelines for acceptable use
• JANET – JANET acceptable use policy

Anything that is illegal is automatically in breach of the acceptable use policy - particular care should be taken to avoid statements which might be considered defamatory, as online publication is subject to the same libel laws as publication in print. The BBC has prepared some guidelines on avoiding libel.

Forum-specific Rules

The Applying Forum

The applying forum is intended to support applicants and prospective students. Access to this forum is not limited to registered users or members of the university, so anyone may post. However, this freedom is on condition that discussion remains strictly on topic. Anything not directly related to applying may be removed without notice – it is not acceptable for members of the university to use this forum as a route for making anonymous comments.

Forums in the Current Students and Advertising categories

The forums for current students are intended primarily for current members of the university, although they may also contain information of interest to applicants and prospective students (who have read only access). This is particularly true of posts made before 1 February 2006, when the status of these forums changed (description of policy change).

Users may only post in these forums if they have registered, using Raven authentication to confirm that they are members of the university. This means that anonymous posting is not possible in these forums. Most issues which would need to be discussed anonymously are not suitable for discussion in a public forum, and you should instead consider contacting a GU representative, MCR officer or college tutor who can discuss your situation confidentially. If you are affected by an issue of clear and general importance to the graduate community that you feel should be discussed publicly, but you do not want it to be known that the issue affects you personally, the forum moderators might in some cases be prepared to post it on your behalf – contact them directly by e-mail (forum@gradunion.cam.ac.uk), and they will reply as soon as possible. You must at least be an authenticated, registered user for this to be considered, and the decision of an individual moderator is final. You may also, of course, ask a friend or colleague to post on your behalf, or write your comments in such a way that it is not implied that the issue affects you. Posting a comment in the Applying forum on a subject more relevant to one of the forums for current students is not an acceptable alternative method for introducing anonymous comments.

If you are a registered user and a member of the university but you are being denied permission to post, please upgrade your account; if you are a member of the university but not a registered forum user, please register.

Guidelines on what is unacceptable

Anything which breaches the above rules, in the opinion of the forum administrators, is unacceptable. The following guidelines on how the rules should be interpreted should also be read before posting – posts not complying with these guidelines are likely to be considered inconsistent with either the aims of the forum or the forum rules.

• Avoid expletives, profanity and insulting language.
• Remember that your message will be presented in print, and that your intended tone of voice may not be clear. Surrounding offensive material with smilies is not sufficient to render it acceptable.
• The forum reaches an international audience - things you would not consider to be offensive may be considered offensive by people with different backgrounds, and you should bear this in mind. What in Britain may be viewed as mild, playful sarcasm might appear simply rude to some users.
• Be extremely careful not to make any allegations, implicitly of explicitly, when referring to named individuals or organisations. Allegations may be defamatory if they cannot be proved to be true, so any such comments should be supported with evidence - publication elsewhere does not justify repeating an allegation. Wherever possible, however, make only points of general relevance - if your intention in naming someone would be to encourage a Graduate Union response, you should contact a Graduate Union representative privately.
• Do not complain about specific examples of moderator intervention – contact us directly by e-mail instead.

Moderator intervention

If one of the forum administrators or moderators believes a post to be unacceptable, wherever possible they will post to the same topic identifying the problem and requesting that similar posts be avoided in future. The original post may be edited to remove anything considered inappropriate – if the problem is with only part of a single post, it will not usually be deleted. The applying forum may be moderated more aggressively than this, as described in the forum-specific rules. It will always be made clear where a post has been edited by someone other than its author.

Topics which are considered out of date, irrelevant or unacceptable may be locked at any time to prevent further posts. This does not usually mean that the subject under discussion in that topic is in any way banned, and posts in a new topic complying with the forum rules and compatible with the forum aims are welcome.

In the unlikely event that a user repeatedly posts unacceptable material despite being asked to stop, they may be banned from contributing to the forum. We reserve the right to use a personal name, username, Raven-authenticated CRSid or IP address logs to implement this - posts from banned users may be deleted without further warning.

Members of the university should note that some of the rules in force on this forum are imposed by the university, and in very extreme cases breaches of these rules may be subject to the university's disciplinary procedures.

Right of reply

If you believe that any moderator intervention was unnecessary or inappropriate – for example, you may feel that text from one of your posts should not have been removed – then please contact us directly at forum@gradunion.cam.ac.uk and we will aim to reply as soon as possible. We will consider your comments carefully; if you are dissatisfied with our response, you may wish to contact an elected Gradaute Union representative.

Posts commenting on specific cases of moderator intervention, complaining about censorship or insulting the admins are not permitted, and may be removed without warning. We will carefully consider and respond to any complaints about moderator intervention sent to us by e-mail. Discussion about the rules in general terms is acceptable. Remember that the admins are volunteers who are simply trying to keep a popular service running to everyone's best advantage and in accordance with rules imposed on us from elsewhere.

Requests for moderator intervention

If you find any material in the forum offensive, or if you believe it breaches any of the rules or guidelines above, you can contact us at forum@gradunion.cam.ac.uk. We will aim to investigate in a timely fashion and take action if we believe that is appropriate; where possible we will also reply directly to you. Please remember, however, that the forum admins are volunteers who are generally pursuing full-time graduate study in the university, so an instant response may not always be possible.