This Acceptable Use Policy is intended to help create an atmosphere in which freedom of speech is balanced by self-discipline and a mature attitude to discussion.

We politely ask that all who participate in the WDCS Adopt a Dolphin blog abide by the guidelines set out below.

This blog is moderated to ensure that these rules are observed and all comments posted will be viewed by a moderator before posting.

The moderators' decision is final at all times.

By virtue of your participation, you are deemed to have agreed to abide by these rules.

Participation will require your username and password, chosen at time of registration. You must not represent yourself as another person.

You are personally responsible for anything you post to the WDCS Adopt a Dolphin blog. Every message posted leaves a traceable IP address which we capture and record, which basically means in serious cases of abuse we can contact your Internet Service Provider to obtain your details should we or any other readers wish to take any kind of civil or legal action against you.

Messages should not be malicious or designed to offend. In particular, the use of commonly recognised swear-words or profanity is not acceptable. In particular, you must ensure that you do not say or post anything which is harmful, threatening, abusive, harassing, tortuous, defamatory, vulgar, obscene, libellous, invasive of another's privacy, hateful, or racially, ethnically or otherwise offensive

Your message should be within the scope of the subject(s) under discussion, if they are not, they will not be posted by the moderator. Reference should not be made to the personality of other participants in a discussion nor should attacks be made on an individual's character.

You should remember that you are legally responsible for what you post.

You must ensure that your contribution does not harm minors in any way; does not breach any applicable law or regulation; is not transmitted in breach of any applicable contractual or fiduciary duty (such as a duty to keep it confidential); does not infringe any patent, trademark, trade secret, copyright, database right or other similar right of any party.

By participating in a discussion, you undertake to indemnify WDCS, and our employees and subcontractors against any liability arising from any breach of confidentiality, copyright or other intellectual property right published by you on this site and against all damages, losses, claims and costs (including, without limitation, all expenses incurred in conducting or defending any proceedings) arising from any such publication. You must not make statements that are libellous, obscene, seek to incite racial hatred or otherwise break the laws of England and Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland.

No advertising is allowed unless you have been given prior written permission by WDCS.

Absolutely no website links may be posted on the WDCS blog without the prior written permission of WDCS except links to any national newspaper websites (e.g. The Mirror, The Times, The Independent, The Guardian) and other mainstream media outlets such as The BBC, Sky Sports, ITV, Sky News, Ananova, Sporting Life, Press Association, Eurosport.

Anyone posting links to any sites that do not fall within these categories will have their account closed without notice.

Without prejudice to our general rights we reserve the right to block or remove any material at any time without notice or explanation.

If a person has sent you a private email you may not forward it to others without the prior consent of the person who sent it. This does not prevent you forwarding private e-mail to WDCS should you consider this appropriate.

You may report offensive posts or breaches of this Acceptable Use Policy by contacting WDCS by emailing AADblog@wdcs.org or calling 0870 870 5001 (+44 1249 449500 from outside the UK] during the hours of 9am to 5pm (UK time) Monday to Friday.

Images should not be included in signatures as this slows down the loading of pages when others view them.

Avatars must be non offensive and appropriate for viewing by people of all ages.

The location field under your name must be a geographical location such as Liverpool, Leeds, London, UK, New York, Netherlands, Norway.

If you post any abuse aimed at others including the moderators and any people that have been, are or become WDCS staff, your account will be closed without notice and without exception.

If you are identified as posting abuse or spam on our forums we will not hesitate to contact your ISP to inform them of such activities on their network.

By virtue of your participation on our network, you are deemed to have agreed to abide by these rules.