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House Rules

Posting comments on our site

We've established these House Rules so that everyone can get the most out commenting on the BEST website.

We reserve the right to fail messages which:

• Are considered likely to disrupt, provoke, attack or offend others
• Are racist, sexist, homophobic, sexually explicit, abusive or otherwise objectionable
• Contain swear words or other language likely to offend
• Break the law or condone or encourage unlawful activity. This includes breach of copyright, defamation and contempt of court.
• Advertise products or services for profit or gain
• Are seen to impersonate someone else
• Include contact details such as phone numbers, postal or email addresses
• Contain links to other websites which break our guidelines (see 'Unsuitable links')
• Describe or encourage activities which could endanger the safety or well-being of others
• Are considered to be ‘spam’, that is posts containing the same. or similar, message posted multiple times
• Are considered to be off-topic for the particular message board

We welcome feedback, both positive and negative, about our services but please make sure your comments are in line with the above House Rules. Repeatedly posting personal or offensive comments about individual members of the public or people who work for the BCC may be considered harassment. We reserve the right to remove such messages and take action against those responsible.

Unsuitable Links

We are happy for our users to link to any website provided it meets our editorial guidelines. We reserve the right to remove a link if we become aware that the website is:

Offensive

• Pornography & sexually explicit content
• Text & images likely to offend most people
• Hate sites (on grounds of race, religion, gender or sexual orientation)
• Gratuitous violence

Unlawful

• Condones or encourages unlawful acts
• Breaches copyright law or encourage others to do so (eg: peer-to-peer music sites, illegal downloads of software & games, etc)
• Defamation and contempt of court
• Hacking or other technical disruption to online services
• Describes how to conduct an unlawful act (e.g. bomb-making, fraud etc)

Presents access or safety problems...

• Pay-to-view or other subscription sites
• Sites which initiate a download
• Sites requiring obscure software
• 18+ sites (eg: gambling)
• Foreign language sites with no English language version
• Sites requiring registration before any content can be viewed

Lacks value...

• Solely for-profit products and services (no editorial content)
• Pay-to-list directories
• Cascading sites (automatically launching numerous windows)

The fact that a link appears on a Birmingham BEST web page does not mean that the Birmingham BEST or Birmingham City Council in any way endorses the content of that website and is not responsible for its content or actions.