Disclaimer & Rules

DISCLAIMER

• The views expressed in the forum and chat room are entirely those of the author and there is no intention to represent these opinions as being those of Foggy Friends.

• You remain solely responsible for the content of your messages, and you agree to indemnify and hold harmless Foggy Friends, and any related web sites to Foggy Friends. We also reserve the right to reveal your identity (or any information we have about you) in the event of a complaint or legal action arising from any information posted by you.

• Foggy Friends accept no liability for any loss or damage (whether direct, indirect, special, consequential or otherwise) arising out of errors or omissions contained in this web site. We give no warranty that the web site will be available on an uninterrupted basis and accept no liability in respect of loss or damage arising out of its unavailability. Also, we accept no liability in respect of loss or damage arising out of changes made to the content of this web site by unauthorised third parties.

• The information presented on this web site is not intended to replace the counsel of your doctor. It is important to see your doctor before altering anything in your treatment plan. Foggy Friends does not endorse any medications, products or treatments for ME/CFS.

• Foggy Friends is not responsible or liable for any damages which may occur as a result of your use or misuse of the information available through the web site, forum and chat room.

RULES

Membership at Foggy Friends is a privilege and not a right. The Administrators and Moderators reserve the right to refuse membership, remove, edit, move or close any thread or post for any reason. Although we have an warning/infraction system we reserve the right to instantly ban members if we see fit. You must enter a valid email address as registration requires verification that the email address exists. Accounts must be activated within 10 days. During this time you will receive several reminders. After 10 days we will remove any non activated accounts. All registrations are moderated and manually activated.

The aim of this site is to provide a fun safe place for people to seek help, support and advice, free from harassment. A place to share smiles, tears, views and treatments that may have helped them live with this illness. If it is felt that any message within the Foggy Friends community contravenes these ideas they will be deleted without question and the offender will be issued a warning/infraction and eventually banned.

We have a wide range of member ages from 5-80. Please bear this in mind when using the forum and chat room and keep all conversation appropriate for all ages. Any discussion of an adult nature must be discussed in the 'Adults Only 18+' room. The password for this room may be obtained from a Administrator or Moderator.


ADULT MATERIAL
You agree not to post any adult material. This includes all pornography, erotic images, or otherwise lewd or obscene content. This also includes any sites which provide "links to" information about such material.


ADVERTISING
Foggy Friends is a totally non profit making site and does not accept any advertising. In some circumstances the Administrators may allow some promotional or advertising posts, (providing Foggy Friends benefits to aid running costs) however permission must be sought first. Any promotional posts in the forum by merchants or their representatives without permission will result in the person responsible having their message(s) deleted followed by a warning or ban. Members also should not post links to other sites asking for donations without the consent of an Administrator.


AVATARS
Members are able to use any standard gallery avatar. Members who have donated to Foggy Friends are entitled to use a avatar of their own. If you have made a donation you will need to contact an Administrator who will check, resize and upload the avatar for you. Animated avatars are not allowed.


BACK SEAT MODERATING
Members are asked to not act as "back seat moderators". If members note an issue which contravenes something in these rules, they are welcome to bring it to the attention of a member of the Moderator Team. Only do this if a moderator team member has not replied within 6 hours. Do not respond to such topics yourself. Members who constantly "act" as moderators may be warned.


BOUNCED EMAIL
We reserve the right to delete any members that are bouncing email back to us. It is your responsibility to keep your email and Foggy Friends account up to date.


CONSECUTIVE POSTING
Please do not make consecutive posts. If you have made a mistake in your post or wish to add something, please use the 'EDIT' button to edit your post. If you have posted in the wrong forum section and need a thread moving to the correct section please contact a Administrator or Moderator instead of creating a duplicate.


COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL
You agree not to post any copyrighted material unless you own the copyright or you have consent from the owner of the copyrighted material.


ILLEGAL MATERIAL
You agree not to post any illegal material. This includes copyrighted works, commercial audio, video, PC/Console games, pirated software, ROMS, emulators, phreaking, hacking, password cracking, IP spoofing and music files or any material in violation of any International, National or Local law or regulation. This also includes any sites which provide "links to" or "how to" information about such material.


MEMBERS GALLERY
Members may have their photograph added to the members gallery once they have made a minimum of 100 posts on the forum.


OBJECTIONABLE MATERIAL
You agree not to post any material which is abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise in violation of ANY law.


PERSONAL INFORMATION
You agree not to post any personal information. This includes personal phone numbers, personal addresses, credit card details, bank details and personal email addresses. Members may exchange personal details via PM (Private Message) or via email. (If a member asks you for personal details don't feel pressured into doing so. If you are worried someone is not who they say they are, or you are being put under pressure for personal details please contact an Administrator or Moderator immediately. Please always be aware! People may not always be the person you think they are).


POLITICAL POSTS
We realise it can be enjoyable for some to have debates, but whenever a political topic starts, it sometimes gets out of hand very quickly and can cause distress and bad feeling against fellow members. This includes any ME/CFS related political topics. Some intelligent debate of newsworthy issues may be left to run at the Administrators and Moderators discretion. The Administrators and Moderators reserve the right to remove, edit, or close any thread or post for any reason. If it is found that members are getting upset then these threads will be closed or removed. (If any member is found to relish in the upsetting of other members and not allowing them to have an opinion then these offenders will be warned and eventually banned).


POSTING STYLE
Members should post in a way which is consistent with "normal writing". Members should not use "text speak", post excessive numbers of emoticons, large, small or coloured text etc. Similarly users should not "SHOUT" (all capital letters) or use excessive punctuation (e.g. ! and ?) in topic titles or posts. Users consistently abusing this will be warned.


PRIVATE MESSAGES AND EMAIL COMMUNICATION
(Private simply means that your message is not posted on the forum for all to see). Administrators have the ability to monitor Private Messages (PM's). You agree not to use the Private Message system to circumvent the Foggy Friends rules regarding defamatory, insults, threats or harassment. Should such abuse come to the attention of the Administrators, the Administrators will treat PM's as if they were open posts and take further action. We always aim to resolve any issues in a calm and sensible manner. If any emails are sent to the Administrators and Moderators regarding Foggy Friends you agree not to circumvent the Foggy Friends rules regarding defamatory, insults, threats or harassment. Should such abuse come to the attention of the Administrators, the Administrators may take further action.


RANK IMAGES - POSTING COMPETITIONS
Please do not abuse the forum by posting unnecessarily just to increase your rank. You will probably find the Administrators will simply lower your post count.


REPORTING INAPPROPRIATE POSTS
If you find a post inappropriate or offensive in any way, click the exclamation triangle image at the bottom of the post in question and fill in the form. All Administrators and Moderators will be notified of the post and will take any necessary action. Please report any inappropriate or offensive posts immediately...'As soon as you see any'. If posts are reported immediately, they will retain the original content for us to see. If a post is reported to us hours later then there is little or nothing we can do if a member edits their post and takes out any inappropriate or offensive remarks.


RESEARCH
Permission must be sought from the site Administrators before attempting any form of research using Foggy Friends. Any topics relating to research without permission will be removed.


SIGNATURES
Signatures may contain up to 125 characters of text (Small or normal size). Any signature containing inappropriate language or advertising without permission will be removed.


SLANDEROUS COMMENTS
Any member found to be posting slanderous comments about Foggy Friends and it's Administrators and Moderators will be instantly banned and further action may be taken.


SPAM RELATED
You agree not to post Spam, advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, and solicitations.


THE LIGHTNING PROCESS
The Lightning Process has been discussed a lot on Foggy Friends and discussions have got very heated. We lost several members who really needed the support of Foggy Friends because all they ever seen was pushy posts about The Lightning Process. It was decided that we would have a poll to see who wanted to continue reading about The Lightning Process. The outcome of the poll was that the majority of voters no longer wanted to read about The Lightning Process. Some Lightning Process supporters registered several accounts and also asked others to join to try and rig the poll which means the majority vote should actually be a lot bigger. We do have a huge thread that discusses the Lightning Process that has been closed to save any further arguing. You may access that thread HERE.


USING FOGGY FRIENDS CONTENT WITHOUT PERMISSION
Many people find that Foggy Friends is a good source of information and would like to use this information for their research articles etc. If you would like to use information either from the Foggy Friends website or forum then you need to ask permission from the Administrators and also make it clear to members that you are doing research and would like to use their comments in your article. Again permission from these members is needed. Any topics relating to research for your own gain without permission will be deleted. (Please Note: Foggy Friends has all content registered with a copyright agency who will work on our behalf in any event of copyright violation).


WARNINGS AND INFRACTIONS
The warning/infraction system is designed for the management of misbehaving members. When a member reaches a pre-determined point level it will be used to restrict forum permission or ban a member. Infraction levels can be given as warnings. A warning does not add any infraction points to the members point total. Warnings serve as a method to remind members of the Foggy Friends rules and encourages them to be followed without giving infraction points. Although we have an warning/infraction system we reserve the right to instantly ban members if we see fit. (We are happy to discuss any warning/infraction that a member feels is unfair as long as discussions are held in a calm and sensible manner. Arguing, insulting and harassing Administrators and Moderators will not be tolerated and may lead to further warnings/infractions or a ban).


WARNING!!
All usernames and IP Addresses are logged for security reasons. Impersonating a child in order to deceive and interact with children is paedophilia, under the law. Adults who pose as children will be traced and prosecuted to the full extent of the law.