MS Society Forum Acceptable Use Policy

This acceptable use policy sets out the content standards that apply when you

  • upload content to our forum

  • make contact with other users on the forum

  • or link to our forum.

Top 5 things you need to know

  1. By using the forum, you confirm that you accept the terms of this policy and you’ll follow them.

  2. This is a public forum. Don’t post anything that you’d prefer stays confidential. We may use what you post on this forum on our website, or in other publications.

  3. We don’t permit certain types of behaviour on the forum. For example, using another user’s account without their permission. Or sharing things that are obscene, offensive or inflammatory.

  4. We use our Privacy Policy to process any personal information you provide on the forum. This includes information in private messages.

  5. If you want to delete your account, please contact a moderator at forum@mssociety.org.uk. The moderator will change any posts you’ve made so they’re anonymous. You can also delete them. You might want to do this if they have details in them which could identify you.

Contents

Click on the links below to go straight to more information on each area:

  1. Who we are and how to contact us

  2. The terms you accept by using the forum

  3. Other terms that may apply to you

  4. Changes to the terms of this policy

  5. Your use of the forum

  6. Personal messaging and privacy

  7. License

  8. Your account

  9. Disclaimer

  10. Breach of this policy

  11. Which country’s laws apply to any disputes

Who we are and how to contact us

The Multiple Sclerosis Society is a registered charity (charity number 1139257) with its registered office at 372 Edgware Road, London NW2 6ND. To contact us, please email supportercare@mssociety.org.uk or call 0300 500 8084.

By using the forum you accept these terms

By using the forum, you confirm that you accept the terms of this policy and that you agree to comply with them.

There are other terms that may apply to you

Our Terms of Website Use apply to your use of our website generally.

We may make changes to the terms of this policy

We amend these terms from time to time without giving you prior notice, but we will post any changes at Terms and conditions - MS Society UK | Forum You are responsible for regularly checking these terms to ensure you understand them. Your continued use of the forum after we have posted any changes will indicate that you accept the new terms.

Your use of the forum

You must be over the age of 16 to use the forum.

Any communication or material that you transmit to, or post on the forum is and will be treated as non-confidential and may be used by us on our website and in other publications.

By registering for the forum, you agree that the MS Society may use and reproduce your contributions. Any information used will remain anonymous unless we have your permission to use your details.

We use Discourse’s native spam protection service. When you post on the forum, the service analyses the text that you post. If the service determines that the content of your post might constitute spam or abuse, it will inform us before the content appears on the forum.

Your use of the forum is subject to your adherence with the conditions set out below.

Prohibited uses

You may use the forum only for lawful purposes and for your personal use. You must not:

  • act in any way that breaches any applicable local, national or international law or regulation.

  • use or try to use another user’s account on the forum without their specific permission.

  • buy, sell, or otherwise trade in user names or other unique identifiers on the forum.

  • send advertisements, chain letters, or other solicitations through the forum, or use the forum to gather addresses or other personal data for commercial mailing lists or databases.

  • automate access to the forum, or monitor the forum, such as with a web crawler, browser plug-in or add-on, or other computer program that is not a web browser.

  • use the forum to send e-mail to distribution lists, newsgroups, or group mail aliases.

  • falsely imply that you’re affiliated with or endorsed by the MS Society.

  • hyperlink to images or other non-hypertext content on the forum on other webpages.

  • remove any marks showing proprietary ownership from materials you download from the forum.

  • show any part of the forum on other websites with iframe.

  • disable, avoid, or circumvent any security or access restrictions of the forum.

  • strain infrastructure of the forum with an unreasonable volume of requests, or requests designed to impose an unreasonable load on information systems underlying the forum.

  • impersonate others through the forum.

  • encourage or help anyone in violation of this policy.

  • discuss, promote or threaten illegal activity (for example, threats of violence, illicit drug use, fraud).

  • use the forum for the purpose of harming or attempting to harm minors in any way.

  • bully, insult, intimidate or humiliate any person.

  • knowingly transmit any data, send or upload any material that contains viruses, Trojan horses, worms, time-bombs, keystroke loggers, spyware, adware or any other harmful programs or similar computer code designed to adversely affect the operation of any computer software or hardware.

  • transmit, or procure the sending of, any unsolicited or unauthorised advertising or promotional material or any other form of similar solicitation (spam).

  • disclose information that you don’t have the right to disclose, like other people’s confidential or personal information.

  • use the forum in any way which damages the reputation of the MS Society.

You acknowledge that our decision to remove or ban an individual from using the forum, commenting or personal messaging is binding and final.

You acknowledge that any information posted to publicly accessible areas may remain publicly accessible indefinitely. The MS Society is under no obligation to remove content from the forum once it has been posted.

Your contributions

Any material which you contribute to the forum must not:

  • be defamatory of any person.

  • be obscene, offensive, hateful or inflammatory.

  • bully, insult, intimidate or humiliate.

  • promote sexually explicit material.

  • include child sexual abuse material.

  • promote violence.

  • promote discrimination based on race, sex, religion, nationality, disability, sexual orientation or age.

  • infringe any copyright, database right or trade mark of any other person.

  • be likely to deceive any person.

  • breach any legal duty owed to a third party, such as a contractual duty or a duty of confidence.

  • promote any illegal content or activity.

  • be in contempt of court.

  • be threatening, abuse or invade another’s privacy, or cause annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety.

  • be likely to harass, upset, embarrass, alarm or annoy any other person.

  • impersonate any person or misrepresent your identity or affiliation with any person.

  • give the impression that the contribution emanates from the MS Society, if this is not the case.

  • advocate, promote, incite any party to commit, or assist any unlawful or criminal act such as (by way of example only) copyright infringement or computer misuse.

  • contain a statement which you know or believe, or have reasonable grounds for believing, that members of the public to whom the statement is, or is to be, published are likely to understand as a direct or indirect encouragement or other inducement to the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism.

  • contain any advertising or promote any services or web links to other sites.

Personal messaging and privacy

You agree to respect the privacy and wishes of those users with whom you exchange personal messages through the forum.

Any personal information you provide on the forum, including in any private messages, will be processed by the MS Society in accordance with its Privacy Policy, which can be found at https://www.mssociety.org.uk/privacy

License

You grant to us a worldwide, royalty-free, irrevocable, non-exclusive licence (including the right to sub-license) to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display any content (in whole or part) you post and/or to incorporate such content in other works in any form, media or technology now known or developed.

Your account

You must create and log into an account to use some features of the forum.

To create an account, you must provide some information about yourself. If you create an account, you agree to provide, at a minimum, a valid e-mail address and username, and to keep that address up-to-date.

You may self-delete your account if you have been using the forum for less than two days and you have posted fewer than two posts. You can do this by accessing your profile at the top of the forum, selecting ‘preferences’ and ‘delete my account’.

If you have been using the forum for more than two days and wish to delete your account, you can contact a moderator by emailing forum@mssociety.org.uk. They will anonymise your posts but your posts will remain on the forum. In this circumstance, you may wish to delete any posts yourself that you feel could identify yourself. Only in particular circumstances would we completely delete your account activity.

You agree to be responsible for all action taken using your account, whether authorised by you or not, until you either close your account or notify us that your account has been compromised. You agree to notify us immediately if you suspect your account has been compromised.

If you post anonymously we may use an IP look-up to identify you in order to safeguard you or other users when either a form of abuse or misconduct is suspected.

Disclaimer

All communications made available by users of the forum, and any opinions, advice, statements, views or other information expressed on the forum or in comments are solely provided by, and the responsibility of, the person posting such communication and not of the MS Society.

The MS Society does not certify, endorse or verify the contents of any communication posted to the forums, in comments or in personal messages. The MS Society makes no warranty of any kind, express or implied, with regard to the posted communications or information contained therein.

The MS Society is not responsible for defamatory, offensive or illegal conduct of any author posting to this forum.

Although the MS Society reserves the right to remove any postings from this forum at its discretion, this reservation creates no affirmative duty in the MS Society, and failure to exercise this power shall not subject the MS Society to any liability of any sort.

In some instances, the MS Society’s volunteers and / or staff may provide responses, comments or information in relation to issues discussed on the forum. By using the forum you acknowledge and understand that any such correspondence from our volunteers and / or staff does not constitute medical advice. Please consult your healthcare provider in relation to any medical concerns you may have.

Breach of this policy

When we consider that a breach of this policy has occurred, we may take any of the below actions:

  • Restriction, suspension or closure of your account on the forum.

  • Immediate, temporary or permanent removal of any contribution uploaded by you to the forum.

  • Issue of a warning to you.

  • Legal proceedings against you for reimbursement of all costs on an indemnity basis (including, but not limited to, reasonable administrative and legal costs) resulting from the breach.

  • Further legal action against you.

  • Disclosure of such information to law enforcement authorities as we reasonably feel is necessary or as required by law.

We exclude our liability for all action we may take in response to breaches of this acceptable use policy. The actions we may take are not limited to those described above, and we may take any other action we reasonably deem appropriate.

Which country's laws apply to any disputes

If you are a consumer, please note that the terms of this policy, its subject matter and its formation are governed by English law. You and we both agree that the courts of England and Wales will have exclusive jurisdiction except that if you are a resident of Northern Ireland you may also bring proceedings in Northern Ireland, and if you are resident of Scotland, you may also bring proceedings in Scotland.

If you are a business, the terms of this policy, its subject matter and its formation (and any non-contractual disputes or claims) are governed by English law. We both agree to the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of England and Wales.