ForumGarden - Registration
By accessing "ForumGarden" (hereinafter "we", "us", "our", "ForumGarden", "https://forumgarden.com/forums"), you agree to be legally bound by the following terms. If you do not agree to be legally bound by all of the following terms then please do not access and/or use "ForumGarden". We may change these at any time and we'll do our utmost in informing you, though it would be prudent to review this regularly yourself as your continued usage after changes mean you accept any new terms. Our forums are powered by phpBB (hereinafter "they", "them", "their", "phpBB software", "www.phpbb.com", "phpBB Limited", "phpBB Teams") which is a bulletin board solution released under the "GNU General Public License v2" (hereinafter "GPL") and can be downloaded from www.phpbb.com. The phpBB software only facilitates internet based discussions; phpBB Limited is not responsible for what we allow and/or disallow as permissible content and/or conduct. For further information about phpBB, please see: https://www.phpbb.com/.
Online Safety Compliance
Responsible Officer: John Harris is designated as ForumGarden's Online Safety Compliance Officer, responsible for ensuring compliance with the UK Online Safety Act 2023 and related regulations.
Age Verification and Parental Consent
While ForumGarden maintains open access principles, users under 13 years of age require verified parental consent before participating. Parents or guardians wishing to grant access to children under 13 must:
- Email the Compliance Officer at online-safety@forumgarden.com with subject "Parental Consent Request"
- Provide verification of parental identity and relationship to the child
- Explicitly consent to the child's participation in forum discussions
- Acknowledge responsibility for monitoring their child's online activity
- Provide contact information for ongoing communication regarding their child's account
Physical Meetup Policy
For the foreseeable future, ForumGarden feels it would be unwise to accept participants below the age of 25 at any physical social meeting. This is not a restriction on the use of the online site, which remains open to all ages with appropriate safeguards.
Priority Offences and Prohibited Content
In addition to our existing content policies, the following categories of content are strictly prohibited and will result in immediate account suspension and content removal:
Terrorism and Related Offences: Content encouraging or instructing terrorism activities; Dissemination of terrorist publications; Information likely to be useful to terrorists; Content encouraging or providing instruction on terrorism training.
Child Sexual Exploitation and Abuse: Any content involving sexual exploitation or abuse of children; Grooming communications or attempts to arrange meetings with minors for illegal purposes; Distribution or possession of child sexual abuse material.
Suicide and Self-Harm Encouragement: Content encouraging or assisting suicide; Detailed instructions on self-harm methods; Content promoting eating disorders or dangerous weight loss practices.
Hate Offences: Content intended to stir up hatred based on race, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or transgender identity; Threatening, abusive, or insulting communications likely to cause harassment, alarm, or distress.
Fraud and Financial Offences: Fraudulent schemes or scams; Identity theft or impersonation for financial gain; Money laundering activities or advice.
Intimate Image Abuse: Non-consensual sharing of intimate images; Threats to share intimate images without consent; Creation of fake intimate images of real persons.
Foreign Interference: Content designed to interfere with UK democratic processes; Covert influence operations by foreign states; Disinformation campaigns targeting UK institutions.
Reporting Procedures
Users can report suspected illegal content through:
- Standard phpBB Reporting using the "Report" button on any post
- Direct Contact by emailing the Compliance Officer at online-safety@forumgarden.com
- Emergency Contact - for urgent safety concerns, contact local authorities first, then notify us
All reports will be acknowledged within 24 hours, investigated promptly, actioned according to legal requirements, and reported to relevant authorities when legally required.
Content Moderation and Removal
ForumGarden operates post-moderation for public posts and reserves the right to remove content immediately upon detection of illegal material, suspend user accounts pending investigation, preserve evidence as required by law enforcement, and cooperate fully with regulatory authorities.
Private Messaging
IMPORTANT NOTICE - Private messaging functionality is disabled on ForumGarden effective immediately. This decision supports our commitment to maintaining a safe, transparent community environment while reducing compliance complexity.
Contact Information
Online Safety Compliance Officer: John Harris
Email: online-safety@forumgarden.com
For general inquiries about these policies, users may contact the Compliance Officer. For emergency situations involving immediate harm, contact local emergency services first.
You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening, sexually-orientated or any other material that may violate any laws be it of your country, the country where "ForumGarden" is hosted or International Law. Doing so may lead to you being immediately and permanently banned, with notification of your Internet Service Provider if deemed required by us. The IP address of all posts are recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. You agree that "ForumGarden" have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic at any time should we see fit. As a user you agree to any information you have entered to being stored in a database. While this information will not be disclosed to any third party without your consent, neither "ForumGarden" nor phpBB shall be held responsible for any hacking attempt that may lead to the data being compromised.
You agree not to use "ForumGarden" to post any material which is knowingly false and/or defamatory, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, sexually oriented, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, or otherwise violative of any law.
You agree not to post any copyrighted material unless the copyright is owned by you or by "ForumGarden".
Your password is ciphered (a one-way hash) so that it is secure. However, it is recommended that you do not reuse the same password across a number of different websites. Your password is the means of accessing your account at "ForumGarden", so please guard it carefully and under no circumstance will anyone affiliated with "ForumGarden", phpBB or another 3rd party, legitimately ask you for your password. Should you forget your password for your account, you can use the "I forgot my password" feature provided by the phpBB software. This process will ask you to submit your username and your email, then the phpBB software will generate a new password and send it to the email address on file.