No Offence Forum FAQ

The Forum Team is comprised of the senior management, ably supported by a team of volunteers who are specialists in the particular subject of the forum that they manage and who are so passionate about this area that they offer their time and expertise in support of the forum. You could apply to join this team by making contact through admin@no-offence.org.

The vBulletin CMS allows you and your users to create, edit and publish articles directly to your site. It combines a simple to use content manager with a unique organizational system that lets you control the smallest detail of the site from the number of sections, to the overall layout, to the placement of widgets and displays on each page.

Yes, if you wish to register using a pseudonym that is perfectly acceptable. The No Offence! team recognise that being anonymous gives the user more confidence to share views and opinions. If you wish to do this, please email the team to explain before registering, failure to do so may result in your registration being refused: admin@no-offence.org.

Report any post or private message that you feel is inappropriate, illegal or offensive to admin@no-offence.org.

There are a number of reasons why your post may have been removed. It may have been the subject of a report that it was inappropriate, or it may have been moderated and the Forum team felt that it would be offensive to some person or persons, or it might be that the publication of the post risks the poster and No Offence! being sued for defamation. The Forum Team's remit is simply 'if a post may be legally dodgy, it has to go'. This doesn't necessarily mean it's wrong, but sometimes they have to take that decision. Whilst we want to encourage open debate, we have neither the time nor financial resources to become embroiled in expensive legal proceedings. If you disagree with a Forum Team decision you should email your appeal to webmaster@no-offence.org. Please don't question Forum Team decisions on the public forum; they're unlikely to see your post anyway.

Posts/threads are deleted so we're no longer "publishing" them. While you may have posted it once we are made aware of it - we are legally liable too as the publisher. When something is deleted, it's removed from public view but it's still viewable by the Forum Team and can be reinstated if it needs to be. It won't show up in a forum search. We never contact people when their posts are deleted. The sheer numbers of posts removed every day means it's simply impossible to contact everyone. The Forum Team won't respond to aggressive emails demanding to know why a post/thread's been removed but if you send a polite email asking, it may review or explain the decision where possible (sometimes legal reasons prevent this). If you're still unhappy email webmaster@no-offence.org.

Sometimes new users may need a little help because they ask questions or post in the wrong place. Please be considerate and remember that you were a newbie once!

Forum users mustn't post the same forum post more than once on the forum (the only exception is members of the Forum Team; when needed). It's called spamming and most internet forums forbid it. Where spam is reported to the Forum Team posts are deleted and the user may be removed from the forum.

Because we are not omniscient! We don’t know everything and don’t have the resources to check every claim. We rely on forum members to politely challenge or disprove claims or statements that they believe or know to be incorrect. The forum is about debate, so go ahead and have one if you disagree with something. All we ask is that you do it politely! You shouldn’t rely on information being accurate or complete. If you do, you do so at your own risk. Therefore please, please take care to check everything out yourself. It's important to remember that any posting of information is the opinion of the person posting only and in no way reflects No Offence!'s opinions or attitudes.

Forum users should not post their or anyone else's personal details, because these can be seen by everyone on the forum. The means to share contact details exists in the Private Message facility

Mainly because you probably won’t get anyone responding to your post, and that isn’t what the site is about, but also because other forum users find it irritating.

Yes you can, but not on the forum itself. The forum provides a free resource for discussion and information sharing, and relies on income from promotions and advertisements to keep it free.

We will follow BBC guidelines for pre-watershed language as indicated on the BBC website Also, please take care when using acronyms – not everyone understands what they are, and talking jargon is a big barrier to discussion. Furthermore, please don’t be embarrassed to ask what one is if you see it! Please read the full Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy

No-Offence.org was funded initially by Smartr Consulting Ltd, and is supported in its operational activity through the revenue gained from the business activities of No Offence! CIC, including recruitment advertisement, conference events, promotional activities in addition to independent grants and trusts. One of the differentiating factors of No-Offence.org is that none of the sponsors are allowed to influence the postings on the website, except by reasoned argument through the forums. You can support your group by making use of the recruitment facilities which gives access to the largest group of criminal justice employees in the UK.

The Blog system gives you your own personal space at No Offence Forum. Depending on how the administrator has configured the blog, you will be able to create your own entries and control who may view them.