IMPORTANT POINTS: If you wish to register you must agree to abide by the rules and information detailed below. Although the administrators and moderators of Iain Abernethy.com will attempt to keep all objectionable messages off this message board, it is impossible for us to review all messages. All messages express the views of the author, and neither Iain Abernethy or administrators or moderators of Iain Abernethy.com will be held responsible for the content of any message. By joining and posting, you warrant that you will not post any messages that are obscene, vulgar, sexually-orientated, hateful, threatening, or that will in anyway violate any laws. You also agree to abide by the message board rules listed below, and any future amendments to these rules.

THE RULES: The rules governing this message board are very straight forward and should be easy to abide by. Our goal is to promote a positive environment for the exchange of ideas and the sharing of information. NOTE: This is not a message board for those who get their kicks from attacking martial arts and individuals from behind the safety of pseudonym. Serious martial artists will be made very welcome here. “Keyboard Combatants” are not at all welcome and are advised to go elsewhere. Forums are assigned 'moderators' who will restrict inappropriate content and have the power to ban violators of these rules without notice or warning.

1. Your Name: It is preferred that members use either their real name or an appropriate nickname. This will help ensure the membership is made up of mature, genuine and competent martial artists. So let’s have no silly comic book style aliases such as “The Skull Crusher” or “Ninja Death Strike”! Failure to comply with this rule will result in termination of membership.

2. Password: A password is required to sign into the message board and to play an active part.  Following membership approval by the administrators, you can log on using this password. You will be able to change your password by visiting your profile. All members must never allow anyone else to use their password.

3. Any spiteful, racist, sexist or slanderous comments or messages about other people, members, martial arts, or anything else will NOT BE TOLERATED! ANYONE WHO BREAKS THIS RULE WILL HAVE THEIR MESSAGES DELETED, ACCESS REMOVED, AND WILL BE BANNED WITHOUT WARNING.

4. Disagreement is an important and inevitable part of all healthy discussions. However, all members are expected to disagree in the courteous way associated with mature, secure and capable martial artists. If you feel the need to resort to insults, you probably don’t have a valid counter-argument and make it obvious to all that you don’t fully understand what you’re talking about! In the event of an impasse, agreeing to disagree is to be the way forward.

5. Members whose posts are deemed to be deliberately disruptive (i.e. making inflammatory posts whilst refusing to engage in actual discussion) or detrimental to the quality of the board in other ways (i.e. persistently making rambling off-topic posts) will have their membership revoked.

6. Keep your messages on-topic. For example, in the self-protection forum, don’t post messages about stretching exercises. Also, do not derail threads by introducing unrelated side issues. Persistent offenders will have thier membership revoked.

7. Do not post the same message into multiple forums. Even if the topic covered may also be appropriate for other forums, please choose the forum which most closely fits the topic and post it once in that location.

8. You may only have ONE account. Those who are discovered to have multiple accounts will have their membership terminated without notice.

9. Do not SPAM these forums! We have provided one forum - 'What’s On?' – were you can post information on events, seminars and other such announcements that may be of interest to other members. Those found to be posting such material in other forums, or abusing this facility for their own ends may have their membership terminated without warning.

10. Please do not use slang or shorthand in your posts e.g. none of this “L8R” (Later) nonsense. Posts should be kept as clear as possible in order to facilitate good quality communication.

11. All members have a duty to ensure that this message board is a positive, beneficial and fun place to be. Therefore members must report all inappropriate posts and all rule breaches to the moderators. If you discover an inappropriate post, please do not reply but instead immediately report it (all reports will be treated in strict confidence).

12. Please keep your private chatter for the private message function. Don’t post it! I know it happens in other forums, but it is not acceptable here. Other members are unlikely to be interested in your non-topic related discussion and it means members and visitors have to sift through it all in order to get to the heart of what is being discussed. All such posts must be reported, they will be deleted, and persistent offenders will have their membership revoked.

13. The whole point of the forum is to share information. Therefore please don’t make any “information free” posts! Be sure that your posts add something to the discussion and you are not “talking for the sake of talking”. All posts should be questions aimed at clarifying the views expressed in another post; a statement of your own views including an explanation of why you hold those views and believe them to be true; or statement of an alternative position complete with an explanation of your view and why you hold another view to be invalid or not as valid. “I think kata is a good way to train because ….” is great. “I think kata is a good way to train” end of statement is poor and such posts will be deleted. This is not a “shout from your soap box” kind of forum. All posts need to add something to the discussion.

14. Moderators and Administrators have the ability to restrict inappropriate content and have the power to ban any member who breaks these rules, without notice or warning. The administrators or moderators of Iain Abernethy.com also have the right to remove, edit, move or close any thread for any reason.

15. THE GOLDEN RULE: Don’t take yourself or anyone else too seriously and be sure to enjoy yourself!