ABOUT CATHOLICYOUTHWORK.COM, IT'S MEMBERS AND ITS POLICIES AND RULES

CatholicYouthWork.com is an independent website which exists to support those involved in Catholic Youth Ministry. We are an associate member of CYMFed and have associations with numerous other bodies. The site does not formally represent CYMFed and nothing said on the site should be considered as an official statement by CYMFed unless explicitly stated otherwise.

It should not be assumed that catholicyouthwork.com endorses the views of any of its members as represented by what they contribute to the site.

These Policies and Rules are not exhaustive, and are liable to change. They are meant to give a sense of the spirit of this community. Members are advised to check back regularly. By joining the site you agree to be bound by these policies and rules, both as they are now and as they may be amended in the future.

The final say on all matters rests with the Administrator ('the admin'). The admin is not bound by these Policies and Rules and reserves the right to make any decisions which are felt to be in the best interests of the site. The Administrator reserves the right not to explain his decisions.

The administrator appoints Moderators ('the mods') to assist him in running the site. Instructions and decisions from mods are to be treated as if they were from the administrator. Moderation decisions will probably not be explained.

If a member breaks the rules then the admin or a moderator may take action. This may involve a warning or maybe a ban. Any site content, including posts, personal messages, links, gallery items and other content may be edited, modified or removed. In the case of more serious violations the moderators of administrator may chose to involve the police, other authorities, or other parties, as necessary.

Since we do not vet members, it should be remembered that members of the site may not be who they appear to be.

You don’t have to give your real name, but you may not give a false name!

This site is primarily for those who are involved in Catholic Youth Ministry. Those who are not directly involved (including, especially, those who want to get involved) may join as long as they have a genuine interest in the field beyond a specific issue.

If you are not involved in Catholic Youth Ministry, you are asked to exercise a bit of discretion in how you enter into the discussions on the site. Please post sparingly and respect the fact that you are discussing things which, for other people, are a huge and important part of their lives.

Please do not post in the forum boards unless you are involved in youth ministry (or Catholic education) or are trying to find out how to get involved.

By joining the site, members agree that the site will send them E-mails from time to time, publicising events, opportunities, resources and other information about Catholic Youth Work, or which we feel may be of interest to Catholic Youth Workers.

If you don’t want to receive the weekly E-mails, then go to the section in your profile called ‘Notifications and Email’ and untick the box that says ‘Receive forum announcements and important notifications by email.’ That way, you'll only receive occasional, important announcements.

Members are advised to use complex and unique passwords to protect their accounts, and each individual is restricted to one user account only, except by permission of the administrator. We reserve the right to refuse or to terminate any member account, at any time, with or without giving a reason.


WHAT CAN MEMBERS POST ON THE SITE?

(These rules apply to threads, walls, personal messages, links, articles and all other content members add to the site)

Members remain solely responsible for anything that they add to the site and must agree to indemnify and hold harmless the owner of this site, and any linked agents or organisations.

It should also be remembered that this is a public site which anybody can join and that inappropriate content may have been posted which the admin or moderators have not yet seen. Anybody who discovers content on the site which they deem inappropriate is asked to report it to a moderator.

Regarding what can be posted – we used to have a massive and prescriptive list. It didn’t work. Nobody read it. And in any case, being that legalistic is the wrong approach to take. So what we say now is this: Anything you post on the site must be of use to the youth ministry community and must contribute toward useful debate, to the building up of individuals and to the success of their work. Anything you post which is likely to cause trouble or which is inappropriate will probably be removed and will put you at risk of being kicked off the site!

If we have a legalistic policy and try to make a rule for everything, then people will just spend their time thinking about the technicalities of whether they are breaking the rules. On the other hand, leaving things this open – and leaving enforcement to the subjective judgment of the moderators – forces people think about one another, about what is appropriate, and about what is charitable. In other words, you can’t just get by here by staying technically within a set of rules. It's a community. You have to think about the people and how they're going to react!


SOME MORE SPECIFIC POSTING RULES

No advertising of jobs and no discussion of any job adverts posted on the site whatsoever.

No discussion of events and resources, other than asking for further information or saying how you found it having used it in practice (i.e. attended, in the case of an event) or working with young people who have.

Keep discussions on topic. If you want to start a new discussion, start a new thread.

No bumping. If you were the last poster, you don't get to post again until somebody else has posted. No exceptions.

Once a thread has been locked, the discussion is over. End of.

No discussion of moderation decisions is allowed, nor any discussion of the fact that there is no discussion of moderation decisions (repeat ad infinitem!). If you don't understand a certain decision, get over it!


Please do not post in a board which isn't relevant to you i.e. if you're not a Chaplain, don't post in the Chaplains' board etc etc.


DON'T GET CUTE!

You know what the above rules are trying to say to you, so don't try to push your luck. Enforcement isn't about technicalities, but about the judgement of the individual moderator and about how they read your motives.

Comments 'with an edge to them' or subtle, clever refences to things which designed to irritate the moderators, probably actually will end up irritating them. So don't complain when they ban you!


PERSONAL MESSAGES

Please do not send personal messages to people you don't know in rea life or who you do not have a legitimate reason to contact.

Members are strongly advised to report any personal messages which they find harassing or abusive.


SAFEGUARDING

Members are strictly forbidden from taking any action which may cause and form of harassment, alarm, distress or risk to a young person.

Anybody who becomes aware of site content which may put a young person at risk is asked to report it immediately.


EVENTS AND CALENDAR

We do not feel able - for a variety of reasons - to advertise all of the events that come our way and we have to be careful about which events we allow. The Administrator - assisted by the Moderators - has the final say over which events are advertised on the site.

We only advertise events at diocesan, regional, national or international level. Events targeting an area smaller than a diocese, such as parish or deanery events, will not normally be included, due to their sheer volume. Regular events occurring more regularly than once a month will also not normally be advertised on the site, unless they are particularly important or large. Events which are controversial or which are likely to cause offence or exacerbate divisions will also not be allowed.

All events must be of clear, specific interest to Catholic youth workers, Catholic young people or Catholic young adults.

If you want to advertise an event, post it in the 'Upcoming Events' board. A moderator will then take a look at it and decide if it is appropriate to add to the site calendar.


PRIVACY

Users should be aware that nothing whatsoever on the site (yes, including personal messages) is hidden from administrators. Users should also be aware that the admin reserves the right to examine any content and to take appropriate actions based on what they see if they believe that such content is contrary to the aims of the site and the work of Catholic Youth Ministry. Members should remember that their IP addresses are logged, both on registration and on each login and post, and that their E-mail addresses and all membership details (excluding password) are visible to the admin and moderators.

Members should remember that the administrator, at his discretion, reserves the right to divulge any information about members to third parties in the event of complaints or any other serious situations arising. Situations where this might happen include Police investigations, Situations where a young person is in danger, Instances of gross professional misconduct, Instances of copyright breach or Instances of libel.

Information about members will never be divulged for the purposes of advertising, checking up on employees or applicants, or information gathering for any other unreasonable purpose.


CHARGING AND PAYMENTS

From the start of 2008, CatholicYouthWork.com has charged for recruitment advertising concerning some jobs. Individual members, though, are not charged for anything on the site whatsoever at present.

Members may be offered paid services provided by the site which are separate from the website.


ADVERTISING POLICY

Any member of the site is welcome to advertise anything which may be useful to the field of Catholic Youth Ministry. Please do so in the relevant section (usually the resources boards).

Members are strictly forbidden from posting anything on this site which is designed to yield a financial gain, except by prior arrangement with the administrator.

If you are interested in placing a job advert with us then please contact advertising@catholicyouthwork.NOSPAM.com (remove the NOSPAM).

Youth work job adverts can not be freely posted on the site. Members are strictly forbidden from communicating job opportunities via the site by any means whatsoever.

Spam advertising, for our purposes, is defined as any advertising that is not specifically and particularly relevent to site members. Any attempts to spam the forum or any other part of the site will result in immediate banning and deletion of all spam content as well as an IP address and hostname ban and a formal complaint to the users ISP abuse department. IP and E-mail addresses may also be registered with anti-spam sites on the internet.

The site reserves the right to charge members for any advertising they place on the site at a rate of £30 per advert. This charge applies even if the advert is quickly deleted and even if nobody sees it. Accepting this fact is a condition of site membership. For these purposes, an advert is defined as any content on any part of the site, whether public or private, which is intended to yield a financial gain or to make a recruitment appointment.


PHOTOGRAPH POLICY

Members may upload photos to the site which have to do with their role in youth work as well as personal photos. Obviously this is a Catholic Christian website and so it's fairly obvious that certain photos will not be welcome. Use your common sense!

Members are entirely responsible for ensuring that they have the proper rights and permissions to post any images that they post.

Members must ensure that local laws and good practice have been observed when posting any photos of young people. Members are strictly forbidden from posting images of young people which they are not authorised to use in that way or which may place them in danger or in any way compromise them.


PRIVATE BOARDS

There are boards on the forum which are only visible to certain members. These exists for certain reasons and to satisfy certain needs.

Do not ask for access to a private board unless a post on the forum invites you to do so. They are invitation only.

If you have a reason to want to start a private board, please contact the administrator.