I made some quick edits to this when I was configuring DT, but I'm sure there's still some silliness in here.

You agree, through your use of this forum, that you will not post any material which is false, defamatory, abusive, hateful, harassing, obscene, profane, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, adult material, or otherwise in violation of any International or United States Federal law. You also agree not to post any copyrighted material unless you own the copyright or you have written consent from the owner of the copyrighted material. Spam, flooding, advertisements, chain letters, pyramid schemes, and solicitations are also forbidden on this forum.

Note that it is impossible for the staff or the owners of this forum to confirm the validity of posts. Please remember that we do not actively monitor the posted messages, and as such, are not responsible for the content contained within. We do not warrant the accuracy, completeness, or usefulness of any information presented. The posted messages express the views of the author, and not necessarily the views of this forum, its staff, its subsidiaries, or this forum's owner. Anyone who feels that a posted message is objectionable is encouraged to notify an administrator or moderator of this forum immediately. The staff and the owner of this forum reserve the right to remove objectionable content, within a reasonable time frame, if they determine that removal is necessary. This is a manual process, however, please realize that they may not be able to remove or edit particular messages immediately. This policy applies to member profile information as well.

You remain solely responsible for the content of your posted messages. Furthermore, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless the owners of this forum, any related websites to this forum, its staff, and its subsidiaries. The owners of this forum also reserve the right to reveal your identity (or any other related information collected on this service) in the event of a formal complaint or legal action arising from any situation caused by your use of this forum.

You have the ability, as you register, to choose your username. We advise that you keep the name appropriate. With this user account you are about to register, you agree to never give your password out to another person except an administrator, for your protection and for validity reasons. You also agree to NEVER use another person's account for any reason. We also HIGHLY recommend you use a complex and unique password for your account, to prevent account theft.

After you register and login to this forum, you will be able to fill out a detailed profile. It is your responsibility to present clean and accurate information. Any information the forum owner or staff determines to be inaccurate or vulgar in nature will be removed, with or without prior notice. Appropriate sanctions may be applicable.

Please note that with each post, your IP address is recorded, in the event that you need to be banned from this forum or your ISP contacted. This will only happen in the event of a major violation of this agreement.

Also note that the software places a cookie, a text file containing bits of information (such as your username and password), in your browser's cache. This is ONLY used to keep you logged in/out. The software does not collect or send any other form of information to your computer.

What needs to go?

I'd love to get this down to bullet points.

As well as things members agree to by joining, there are some things I know I should agree to as the forum owner, and probably some things I should agree to that I haven't realized yet.

My agreements:

- You own your creative content.  This means that if for some reason I have to ban someone who has posted creative content, I need to give them complete access to it long enough for them to copy it, delete it, etc.

- I won't knowingly give DT access to someone who is under 13 years of age. (maybe this should be higher?  13 is the age cutoff for requiring parental permission by COPPA regulations.)

- I will do my best to make this a harassment free zone.

- I will request member input if and when I think about adding forum staff

- I will honor copyrights, including non-member copyrights.  Fair use, etc is a slippery concept, but if I'm contacted by a non-member about their content posted here, I'll remove it temporarily, talk to the person who posted it, and figure out if it should be restored or permanently removed. 

- if I learn that a member has violated another members' copyright by posting/publishing elsewhere offsite content that was originally posted here , this will be grounds for sanctions up to and including ban.

What would you like me to add?

13 seems young (says an aunt of a 13 year-old girl).  Is 18 too stuffy?

I'm totally lost on this copyright stuff (vis a vis me posting a pile of original shit that in a pipedream I could get published) but if there is protection offered by the above, then that's great.

Yeah, I don't know where to draw a line as far as age and adult content goes.

The "protection" is of the shut the barn door after the horses have run off variety.

And to some extent members having a semi-private area where only people they invite can read is probably the best protection.

I think 13 is reasonable, on the basis of remembering what I was like around 14/15; you've said you won't allow harassment, raven, so as long as we don't have teens being targeted without consequence I don't have a problem.  Can't imagine they'll see anything here that they wouldn't elsewhere, after all.

Mods I don't care about so much, but since admins can see anything we do in private forums, I'd like a bit stronger promise than you requesting input if you're thinking of adding one of them.

Also, depending on how 'obscene', 'profane', and 'adult material' are being defined, they don't really seem like they fit in a user agreement for writers.  I am profane all the damn time even when I'm not writing.

I don't have a problem with members in good standing advertising their work here so long as it's not over the top.

haha I removed 2 or 3 "profanes" in my hasty edit.  I left obscene in for the time being simply because there are legal ramifications if the content is actually stored on this server.  As long as the info stored on this server don't break the hosting company's rules or US law, I have no problems with adult content.  I'd want that kind of content in a guest-invisible forum, though.  Preferably an opt-in forum.

It's precisely because a global moderator or admin will have access to the read-only forums that I'll want member input.  The specific method of input is really the question, and I'm not going to worry about it just yet.

There's really not a lot of difference between a global mod and an admin from a member perspective - it's a matter of coding/config permissions vs moderator permissions.

Ah, I see.  Well, what about something like this - if you're going to add someone who'll have access to the read-only areas, in addition to getting input they will also have a waiting period wherein you will have a clear announcement posted that this is happening in, say, a month's time?  Everyone's responsible for checking back periodically (and that's one of the things they agree to when they sign up), but if they've got a problem with it then they have the option to remove all their shit before it happens.

eta: potentially also that anyone you give that sort of access to will be required to give you (just you) their full name and address so that if they violate someone's copyright they're easy to find for legal action?

13 does sound young to me.  Not that I intend to post anything risque, but it seems to me that some issues could be sidestepped by the site being oriented to legal adults, or at least people who are old enough to see an R-rated film without their mom coming along.

I could also send out an email announcement about a pending staff change.

Or have a solid and widely explained policy of deleting private forums of members who haven't logged on for a long time - say, a year.

Or both!

13 does sound young to me.  Not that I intend to post anything risque, but it seems to me that some issues could be sidestepped by the site being oriented to legal adults, or at least people who are old enough to see an R-rated film without their mom coming along.

What issues are you thinking of?

I'm still trying to pare this registration agreement down to the essentials.  I have more work to do, especially on the latter (still very wordy) parts.

I don't think my agreements belong here.  I haven't decided where I'll put them yet.  The info needs to be easy to find, but not intrusive.

By registering:

You acknowledge that some parts of this forum may contain adult content, and you assert that you are mature enough to either handle that content or avoid it.

You agree not to post hateful, harassing,or illegal material, or material that is invasive of someone's privacy.  Illegal refers to content that is in violation of international or United States Federal law.

You also agree not to post any copyrighted material unless you own the copyright or you have written consent from the owner of the copyrighted material (fair use conventions apply).

You agree not to spam or flood.   Chain letters or pyramid schemes, advertisements, and solicitations are also forbidden.  The exception to this rule: established members may hawk their personal creative works in designated areas for that purpose.

You agree that you are solely responsible for what you post.  you agree to indemnify and hold harmless the owners of this forum, any related websites to this forum, its staff, and its subsidiaries. The owners of this forum also reserve the right to reveal your identity (or any other related information collected on this service) in the event of a formal complaint or legal action arising from any situation caused by your use of this forum.

You have the ability, as you register, to choose your username. We advise that you keep the name appropriate. With this user account you are about to register, you agree to never give your password out to another person except an administrator, for your protection and for validity reasons. You also agree to NEVER use another person's account for any reason. We also HIGHLY recommend you use a complex and unique password for your account, to prevent account theft.

After you register and login to this forum, you will be able to fill out a detailed profile. It is your responsibility to present clean and accurate information. Any information the forum owner or staff determines to be inaccurate or vulgar in nature will be removed, with or without prior notice. Appropriate sanctions may be applicable.

Please note that with each post, your IP address is recorded, in the event that you need to be banned from this forum or your ISP contacted. This will only happen in the event of a major violation of this agreement.

US Feral law, huh?  Sounds serious.

oops!  fixt