Posting Guidelines

We will attempt to refrain from overt censorship but if people stray outside the reasonable requests below then their postings will be removed by the moderators. If you would like to report a message or thread that contravenes the guidelines below, then please use the Report Abuse page. If you have a more general enquiry then you can use our Contact Us Form.

If you have arrived here after receiving an email from the moderators, then please read this page carefully. After that, if you still feel that your post has been removed unreasonably then please contact us using this Form.

General Behaviour

Please don't use rude, abusive or politically offensive language - Messages which contain excessive and pointless swearing, or insults aimed at other people, or politically offensive language will be removed.

Please don't use even mild bad language in thread titles or starter posts - Messages with bad language in the title or starter post will also be removed no matter how serious and relevant the topic is. This is done because thread titles are picked up more readily by search engines and we don't want people to be direct to UKClimbing.com who are actually searching for dodgy web sites. This rule includes The Chat Room.

Please don't impersonate other users - If someone is impersonating you then please get in touch and their profile will be removed.

Please don't start complaint threads about the moderating - If you feel your message has been unreasonably deleted, or if you wish to complain about a post that you find offensive, then please get in touch with the moderators. Don't just start another thread saying 'Why has my thread been deleted?' or complaining about censorship - try talking to us first! Threads complaining about disappearing posts will always be removed. Read more about UKClimbing.com's censorship policy here.

Please don't use rude and offensive User Names - They lower the tone of the forum and put off first time visitors from posting. They are also remarkably unfunny.

Please be responsible for what gets posted under your name - We regard everything that gets posted under a personal profile as having been posted by that person. If others have access to your machine then log out each time you stop using the forums to avoid someone posting something unpleasant attached to your profile.

Please don't post private information - Please don't post private/personal information about people you know without asking their permission first. This includes posting the contents of emails without getting permission of the sender.

Please don't create second profiles - It is not necessary to create a second profile to log in from a different computer or location, you can easily do it on the same profile. Check the Help Pages to find out how. Do not create second profiles in order to self-promote, or as an attempt to be anonymous in order to cause trouble.

Please don't post links to other sites without any description - Posts of just a link can cause problems since the content isn't obvious and people can end up going places they don't expect to. Please state what the link is about and warn people if it contains something which might be undesirable eg. loud sound files, unpleasant images or offensive language. Do not attach the words 'not work safe' to a post. If it isn't work safe, then don't post it.

Please don't start threads looking for arguments, fights or trading insults - Threads which set out to look for trouble invariably create trouble. Don't start them, we don't want them on the forums.

DO NOT post links to pornographic, racist or other offensive sites - Anyone doing so will be banned permanently from the forums without us issuing a warning. It is not acceptable to attach the words 'not work safe' to a post. If it isn't work safe, then don't post it.

Posting Etiquette

Please don't be anonymous and unregistered - People like to know who they are talking to and it is polite to at least attach the same name to all your posts, even if you don't wish to register. Posts started anonymously will be removed unless it was done accidentally by a first time visitor. Anonymous replies will also be frequently removed and always on request of other users.

Please don't use the forums to chat to your mates - If you must exchange short personal email messages, or supposedly funny one-liners which only a small, select bunch of users understand, then please use The Chat Room (or email) for this type of communication.

Please don't post thread starting with 'FAO xxxxxxxx' - If your post really is only "For the Attention of xxxxxx" then send them an email. If it isn't then title it something that fits in with the concept 'forum'.

Please don't use the forums to discuss personal relationship issues - These issues are much better off being discussed in private. We will not tolerate the practice of starting a thread under the pretext that it is a general relationship discussion, yet in reality it refers to a specific personal issue.

Please post to the most relevent forum - We provide different forums for different types of discussion - please try to use the right one for your new topic, and don't post duplicates of your topic in more than one forum. Topics in the 'wrong' forum will be moved to a different forum by the moderators. Particularly unsuitable posts will either be moved to the Chat Room and closed, or just deleted. 'Unsuitable' means chatty posts between mates, trivial jokes and banter, mimic posts or posts with mild bad language in the starter post or title.

Please don't write all in UPPERCASE - Topic titles and whole messages that are all in UPPERCASE are considered to be the written version of SHOUTING, and are harder to read than normally-written text.

Please don't 'hijack' topics - Try to stay on a topic, and don't turn (for example) a light-hearted thread into a serious discussion, or spoil a good climbing discussion with lots of light-hearted nonsense. If you want to discuss something different, then start a new topic yourself.

Please don't post condescending replies on the Starting Out Forum - The Starting Out forum is often where people make their first posts, and sometimes the questions can get repetitive. Try and answer questions positively, if you can't do that then leave it to someone who can. We were all beginners once.

Please quote carefully - Please don't over-use the quoting feature - most replies won't need to quote anything. Lots of unneccessary quoting results in long pages that take ages to download and read. However, do use this function if you are replying to a post several pages higher in the thread.

Special Cases and Commercial Posts

Please don't post adverts about your own web site - We don't allow any advertising within the normal posts. If you wish to post a commercial message then check out the Premier Posts option. Even if your web site is not a commercial venture, then please at least contact us first before posting.

Please don't canvas for jobs - Requests for employment are considered as commercial posts so please use a Premier Post.

Please don't post surveys without asking for permission first - We allow some non-commercial surveys, or study projects, but please contact us first before posting. Surveys must not be carried out on the forums directly and should be linked back to external survey sites. General discussion surveys may be allowed on the forums but only if strictly non-commercial. You must be a proper registered user before we will allow a survey.

If you wish to make requests for SPA and MIA partners; please ask for permission first - We allow climbers to use the UKClimbing Partners Forum to offer free guiding to help them gain the experience to get their MIA or SPA qualifications, but please contact us first before posting. If you wish to charge for guiding then please use a Premier Post. We will only allow offers for free guiding from registered users so make sure you register properly first.

Please check the restrictions on the For Sale Forum before posting - We don't allow posts to link, or refer, to sales taking place on eBay or other auction sites. We don't allow single sales, or groups of items, totalling more than £500 on the For Sale forum. If items don't have a value quoted, and you are just looking for offers, then UKClimbing will decide what we think they are worth to calculate the £500 limit. We don't allow individuals to post numerous items in separate posts totalling over £500. We don't allow private accommodation adverts. Please use a Premier Post in all these cases.

Please don't use commercial User Names - (eg. including the name of your company in your User Name) are only allowed if you take out a Commercial Profile.

Please don't include commercial web addresses in thread titles - This technique has been used by companies to get free publicity by registering and making fake posts asking about the retailer in question. All posts with web addresses in titles will be viewed suspiciously because of this and are very likely to get removed.

Please don't make recommendations for commercial third party sites - Because of abuse of the forums by people in the past, we don't allow starter posts and thread titles linking to third party commercial sites. If you wish to alert UKClimbing.com users of a potentially good deal then why not recommend to the site you are linking to that they consider advertising on UKClimbing.com.