Terms and rules

The providers ("we", "us", "our") of the service provided by this web site ("Service") are not responsible for any user-generated content and accounts. Content submitted express the views of their author only.

This Service is only available to users who are at least 13 years old. If you are younger than this, please do not register for this Service. If you register for this Service, you represent that you are this age or older.

All content you submit, upload, or otherwise make available to the Service ("Content") may be reviewed by staff members. All Content you submit or upload may be sent to third-party verification services (including, but not limited to, spam prevention services). Do not submit any Content that you consider to be private or confidential.

You agree to not use the Service to submit or link to any Content which is defamatory, abusive, hateful, threatening, spam or spam-like, likely to offend, contains adult or objectionable content, contains personal information of others, risks copyright infringement, encourages unlawful activity, or otherwise violates any laws. You are entirely responsible for the content of, and any harm resulting from, that Content or your conduct.

We may remove or modify any Content submitted at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice. Requests for Content to be removed or modified will be undertaken only at our discretion. We may terminate your access to all or any part of the Service at any time, with or without cause, with or without notice.

You are granting us with a non-exclusive, permanent, irrevocable, unlimited license to use, publish, or re-publish your Content in connection with the Service. You retain copyright over the Content.

These terms may be changed at any time without notice.

If you do not agree with these terms, please do not register or use the Service. Use of the Service constitutes acceptance of these terms. If you wish to close your account, please contact us.

Your Privacy

Please read carefully: To use this forum you must agree to our Privacy Policy. If you agree to this policy then please accept these forum rules. If you do not agree to the policy then please do not accept these forum rules. If you are already a member then please review these policies and update the new field in your user profile called 'Privacy Policy Acceptance' accordingly. If you do not set this field to YES then your account risks deletion!

Main Rules

1. Don't harass other people.
   No one should make threats, or reveal identifying information about another person.
2. Don't make bigoted remarks.
   Don't apply epithets to people or make crude generalisations based on people's age, race, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, or sexual orientation.
3. Refrain from insult and swearing.
   In other words, do not attack people or their characters, or post swearing or profanity. Debates are welcome, especially debates that have substance. If your opponent's argument is truly weak, you shouldn't have to resort to insults. If it is necessary to post swear words (from example in a quote), ensure you mask the words using * or something equivalent.
4. Don't relay messages for people who have been gagged or banned.
   If people have been gagged at the forum or locked out of the forum, it's because we don't want to hear from them anymore. Allowing people to relay messages for them would be counterproductive.
5. Copyright
   Please do not post complete articles or significant sections of articles. If you want to refer to an article, quote a small selection and add a link to the site. Always give your sources and the URL where appropriate. Copyright applies to texts, pictures, etc and the site can be held responsible if people post things here that breach the laws. If we see complete texts being posted or other copyright infringements, we will remove the post.
6. Homework
   Please don't ask us to do or correct your homework; this is a place to discuss language. We do not do homework or assignments for people. If we suspect that a question is an assignment, we will not answer it and may edit or delete it.

General Rules

1. Profanity
   We at UsingEnglish.com try to keep our forums a clean and safe environment, and one way to do this is to keep profanity away; if you see a post with profanity, please report the post to us immediately for deleting.
2. Spamming
   Don't post the same message more than once. Do not post any unsolicited advertising - spamming is not tolerated. If you want to advertise your forum or web page, check with the moderator first to make sure it's OK.
   All spam will be deleted and the poster will be banned from the forum.
   
   We define spam as:
   • The posting of irrelevant or inappropriate links
   • The posting of multiple links aimed solely at promoting a site, even if they are connected with ESL
   • Site owners pretending to have found a great site they want to share with us
   • Site owners posting links to pages in their site without any attempt to participate in the forum community
   • Schools posting job adverts
     

If you do have a relevant ESL link, you can submit it for approval in our ESL Web Directory

3. Reporting posts
   Our forum allows you to draw attention to spam or other inappropriate content by reporting problem posts to the forum staff and moderators.
   In the bottom left-hand corner of every message there is a "Report" link.
   
   If you see a message on our forum that you feel is offensive, inappropriate or just spammy advertising, simply click the "Report" link to alert us to it.
4. Religion and Politics
   This is a forum with members from all over the world, and therefore political discussion is banned due to its potential to offend.
   Discussions about religion and politics often become arguments very quickly. Our general policy is not to have such discussions. We are a language forum and, as far as possible, discussions should stick to language issues. There are political aspects to language learning and teaching, but any discussion that starts to get heated will be closed or deleted.
5. About making posts in languages other than English.
   As this is a forum designed for members learning English, we would like most posts to be in English. However, we recognise that a few posts in other languages will happen in any thread, but if you wish to have full conversations in other languages, please post them in the Other Languages folder.
6. Proofreading
   We are a language discussion forum and do not offer a free proofreading service. You are free to put texts up for people to look at, but there is no guarantee that they will be proofread. If it's a short text, people will usually help. Most teachers get enough marking and correction at work, so some requests may not get done.
   It make also take time before anyone does it, so posting something that requires urgent attention is not advisable. Allow people time- they are coming here in their free time out of interest. Proofreading is a time-consuming activity, and if you need things done urgently, there are plenty of pay sites that will meet your needs.
7. Inappropriate Advice
   We are an ESL forum and many of our students are taking formal exams, so please ensure that advice given takes this into account. In particular, descriptivists and prescriptivists are expected to co-exist without attacking each other. If there are problems or issues about the forum that you wish to discuss privately, feel free to send a message to one of the moderators. Please don't send language questions; these should be posted in the forum.
8. Private messages
   This forum allows you to send Private Messages to other members. This is like sending an email, though the person receiving the message will not see your email address, just your username. This way, you can communicate privately, so if you want to exchange emails or Skype, ICM, etc details, you can.
   
   Any harassment, inappropriate usage, advertising, etc will result in the person being banned.
   
   If there are problems or issues about the forum that you wish to discuss privately, feel free to send a message to one of the moderators. Please don't send language questions; these should be posted in the forum.
   

Member Profile Rules

1. Profile names should not be advertisements
   Profile names should be real name or avatars, not advertisements. If your profile name is either a web address or the name of a product then this equates to it being an advertisement and you will be required to change it. You request to change it by following the FAQ entry called 'How do I change my username?'. If you refuse to change it you will be banned for attempting to spam our forum.
   
   As noted in the above, there is an FAQ item that describes how you can make a request to change your username, which you can find here.
2. Use accurate information about your location & language
   Please complete your member profile with accurate information about your location and language. This helps other users of the forum get a better understanding of your needs when answering your questions or replying to your posts.
3. Don't create clones, multiple accounts or "sock puppets"
   Multiple accounts and sock-puppets, accounts created by a poster to agree and to try to make their views look more accepted, will be removed.
   When people are banned, the ban applies to the person, so any further accounts they make will be closed.
   

Disciplinary Procedure

1. The member will receive a formal warning
2. If, after the formal warning the behaviour persists, the member will be gagged for a period of 2 weeks.
3. If after being gagged the behaviour still continues, the member will be banned permanently.

Rules for specific sections of the forum

Replying in the Ask a teacher Section

You are welcome to answer questions posted in the Ask a Teacher forum as long as your suggestions, help, and advice reflect a good understanding of the English language. If you are not a teacher, you will need to state that clearly in your posts. Please note, all posts are moderated by our in-house language experts, so make sure your suggestions, help, and advice house the kind of information an international language teacher would offer. If not, and your posts do not contribute to the topic in a positive way, they will be subject to deletion. Please remember, the person whose questions you are answering or whose thread you are contributing ideas to believes the help is coming from a teacher.

Editing and Writing Topics

Please read some of the questions (essays submitted for corrections and comments) in this section before posting your own. You may find that your question (at least in part) has already been answered.

Note:

• Please, please space between paragraphs.
• Use the first sentence (or first paragraph) to explain what the subject of the essay is. In the body of the essay, make your case. In the last sentence (or last paragraph) sum up your argument.
• Always aim for clarity.
• When making changes, please make a new post. Please do not change things in the original.