Code of Conduct
Code of Conduct
Our Expectations and Values
UKBF is a professional, public space inhabited by real human beings. As such, we have an expectation of our members that they will behave in an appropriate fashion and remember that their words are being read by their peers, friends and colleagues; all of which should be treated as you would wish to be treated yourself, with kindness and respect. It is important, and recommended, to bring a sense of humour and levity with you as you interact with the platform. The atmosphere we hope to generate here is one of a networking event; relaxed and enjoyable but still professional and on-topic. When responding to someone please think “Would I say this to someone in person at a professional event where I am representing my business?” If the answer is “No, “ it likely isn't suitable for UKBF.
We ask only a few things of our members to ensure that conversations on the platform stay polite, informative and tolerant.
Be constructive - We all start somewhere
The vast majority of our
threads, questions and polls are started by members that are looking for feedback on a
particular topic. This topic might be something they've spent decades immersed in or
something the member has only heard about that very day.
This means that whilst
you might be an expert on the subject, they might not understand the necessary
fundamentals to even begin to ask a well-formed or intelligent question on the topic. We
do not expect our expert member base to spend hours explaining the foundations of their
particular area of expertise, but we do expect our members to be constructive and not
resort to unconstructive criticism or sarcastic comments as responses.
In
short, it is ok to think that a post isn't worth your time to respond to. But it is not
ok to be disruptive because a post is not worth your time to respond to.
Be inclusive - We all belong in business
Visitors to UKBF come from all
walks of life. We have a huge member base covering a wide spectrum of locations,
cultures, genders, sexuality, races and religions.
Outright hate speech will
never be tolerated on the platform, no matter who it is aimed at or who it comes from.
Whilst the platform is for UK businesses, not every visitor or UK business owner's first
language will be English. We ask that you take this into consideration when responding,
as some questions might not be immediately clear to native English speakers.
We
also ask that you take care with jokes and sarcasm. A sense of humour is important when
interacting with UKBF, but tone can be hard to read online. We hope that none of our
members would mean to cause offence, but we ask that you evaluate how your words would
sound to a complete stranger if they were to read them out of context and without
knowing you.
In short, we welcome members from anywhere and everywhere and
making them feel welcome and included is something we hold very close to our hearts.
Be compassionate - We all need help sometimes
Some members of the community
might be approaching the platform with an issue that they might think is catastrophic or
has the potential to end their business. You may not think this is the case, but we ask
that you always assume earnestness on behalf of our members.
If a member
appears to be overestimating the impact of an issue they see as tremendous, we ask that
you ensure any reply attempting to rescope their view of the issue is temperate and
considerate.
We will also not tolerate consistent or targeted put-downs,
harassment, bullying or name-calling to or from any of our members. There will come a
time when everyone in business needs help from their peers, and if they seek this
assistance on UKBF we hope that you would treat them the same as if a friend or business
partner came to you with a serious issue.
In short, in times of trouble, we
want UKBF to be a port in the storm. This can only happen if our members lend an ear and
respond in a measured and understanding way.
Rules
In addition to our core values and expectation of behaviour above, we have some sterner rules that must be followed at all times on the platform.
No Hate Speech
UKBF is a place of acceptance and tolerance. Anyone can run a business and as such anyone should run a business. We will never tolerate any form of hate speech.
No Spam
UKBF is a wealth of knowledge and gives all of our members an easy way to connect with experts that would otherwise never cross their paths. Posting job offers/requests, making off-topic posts in the wrong forums, plastering links to your business or affiliates, sending private messages to advertise your services and other forms of spam make getting assistance harder for everyone. This also includes a complete ban on AI generated content.
No self-promotion
UKBF is a space to share your expertise with others and receive expertise in return from other members. It is not a place for advertising to potential customers. We do not allow self-promotional posts. More details about what constitutes self promotion can be found here.
Use Appropriate Language
Please avoid using profane or abusive language. UKBF does not have an outright ban on swearing, but we ask that you keep in mind the professional setting and remember that you are representing your own business in a publicly available space. Additionally, trolling, insulting, inflammatory posts and the use of charged terms such as “scam” and “con” are prohibited.
Do not discuss illegal practices
UKBF does not and will never support the discussion of topics seeking to circumvent the law. Additionally, we ask that you do not post copyrighted material, discuss piracy or post any libellous/defamatory content on the platform.
Stay on topic
Creating posts in the wrong forums will not necessarily lead to any immediate repercussive actions from our moderators as we do have the ability to relocate posts, however, repeated and flagrant ignorance around where to start topical discussions will result in moderator intervention.
Moderation Process
Breaking any of the rules above or seriously disregarding our expectations and values will result in some form of moderator action against your account. Depending on the severity of the activity in question and in extreme cases of infraction this may result in an immediate ban. Typically, however, our moderators will follow a three-step process below although at their discretion they can skip steps if they believe they are not necessary:
Step 1: Warning
If our moderators notice any of the above rules being broken or receive any reports from our members regarding your account or your activities, they will first begin with a warning to notify you that you have breached our code of conduct. This warning may be a pre-written message or something bespoke depending on the situation.
This step is designed to inform you that you have stepped across into the inappropriate and that our code of conduct is here to ensure that all activity across the forum remains helpful, informative and inoffensive. If you've received a warning, we would advise taking the time to re-review our code of conduct.
At this stage, no further action will be taken against your account.
Step 2: Short-Term Suspension
If you have previously been issued a warning and are still continuing to disregard our requests, we will implement a short-term ban on your account. This is at the moderator's discretion but we typically advise that they issue a ban first for 24 hours, then 72 hours, then one month.
This step is designed to allow you some time to step away from the platform and review your behaviour. We understand that tempers can flare and sometimes individuals can speak in a way that, on reflection, they regret. Our hope is that time to cool off and reflect will result in recognition that your activity was inappropriate.
At this stage, if this is not your first suspension, your account activity will be more closely monitored.
Step 3: Permanent Suspension
We do not want to remove anyone from our community if we can help it. But, if a short-term suspension did not serve the purpose we hope it will, then we are left with no other choice but to permanently suspend your account. Additionally, any form of hate speech, discussions around circumventing the law, libel or serious incidents of spam will result in immediate escalation to a permanent suspension.
What kind of tone works best on UKBF?
We find that avoiding inflammatory language and approaching questions and responses with a clear and measured tone will always lead to less friction and more assistance being offered. We've outlined below how some responses we've seen in the past can be modified to show more compassion and clarity:
Unacceptable
“You could have found this information easily on your own. Why did you bother to ask here?”
Acceptable
“You might be able to find information about this on HMRC's website. It might be a good idea to have a look at official resources if you have any other questions about this and then ask on UKBF if there's something you don't understand.”
Unacceptable
“This is incomprehensible.”
Acceptable
“I'm struggling to understand what you need help with. Are you able to outline how we could provide assistance again, please?”
Unacceptable
“I asked my question to get help. Not to get told what I'm doing wrong.”
Acceptable
“I'm not sure you've understood my initial post. I don't think your advice applies here, unfortunately, but thank you. Is there any more information I could give you to make my request clearer or some other way I can restructure my question to make it more understandable?”
Unacceptable
“You don't know what you're doing. You're never going to make it in the industry if this is your business plan.”
Acceptable
“I'm involved in this industry somewhat and, based on what you've said, I don't think this is going to be too successful. If you could give me some more background about you, your business and what you're trying to tackle perhaps I could give some guidance on ways you could tweak your plan.”
What constitutes spam/self-promotion?
We classify spam as any content purely for the purposes of advertising, trolling or otherwise wholly off-topic. Some examples of what we would consider spam are listed below:
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Posting job offers or requests on the forum outside of “I'm Looking For A...”.
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Making off-topic sales pitches.
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Consistently posting unprompted links to your business or any affiliates.
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Privately messaging members unprompted to advertise your services.
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Any content or links to content containing piracy, nudity, drugs or weaponry.
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Unprompted advertisements for any free trial or free service.
We classify self-promotion as any content purely for the purpose of generating new business. Posts purely for the purposes of self-promotion are only acceptable within the Marketplace section of the forum, and only for members with our paid Business Membership. We understand that you want more business and it can be a side product of the forum, but let your expertise speak for your services. Whilst we encourage the offering of your services to our member base when our member base requests it, we ask that you do not canvas our members in the hopes of some of them becoming your customers:
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DO - Demonstrate your skill. Showing sound business knowledge on UKBF will make you memorable, and engaging in conversations around your industry will turn you into a known name on UKBF amongst our members.
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DO - Use your signature to list your contact information. Adding your contact details, business name and social links to your signature will make it easy for members to speak with you once they've seen you are an expert in your field.
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DO - Include a relevant link to an external source when relevant to the thread topic. If, and only if, a recent thread is asking for a specific service which you provide, you can refer to an external source to direct readers of the thread. This can only be done if the poster is inviting referrals and the relevance of the links is subject to our moderator's approval.
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DON'T - Start a thread purely to advertise a product or service outside of the Marketplace section of the forum. We have spaces on the platform, namely our trade directory, which allow you to create adverts that other members can search for, and Marketplace.
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DON'T - Reply to a thread not asking for recommendations with your own product or service. If a member is looking for a business to procure a product or service from, they will ask.
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DON'T - Add your contact details directly to the main body of your post. Your signature should serve as a space for your contact details, not the body of the post. The notable exception to this is a link to your business only in instances where a link has been asked for.
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DON'T - Ask a member to direct message you for help. If you can help a member, do so openly. This way future visitors to the site can also be helped by your advice.
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DON'T - Post links for SEO farming. Any posts suspected to be part of link building or farming will be removed. This is non-negotiable.
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DON'T - Post PR-heavy text. Creating posts or replying to existing posts with pre-written blocks of text advertising your service helps nobody and is not permitted.
Additionally, we presently do not allow surveys or market research to take place on our forum. If you are interested in arranging market research, please contact us at [email protected] and, if appropriate, we can discuss the creation of a more formal poll.
FAQs
I've been banned. How can I appeal this?
We meet with our moderators regularly, have provided training for them and have given them guides they can refer back to on what enforcement actions to take and when to take them. As such we generally trust that if our moderators have issued a ban, they have done so correctly. However, if you believe that this is not the case, you can reach out to us at [email protected] to audit your account and confirm whether or not your ban will remain.
I'm being targeted/harassed/bullied by one of your moderators. Who can I flag this to?
Our moderators are volunteers within our community with whom we have a great deal of trust and history. In most cases, they've been pillars of the community for upwards of a decade. In all cases, they exemplify our core principles and values. They are also humans that are not members of our staff and are entitled to voice their own opinions as they see fit, provided they also follow the rules of the code of conduct. If you believe that a specific moderator has somehow targetted you or is treating you unfairly compared to your peers, you can flag this to us at [email protected] and we will review the actions of the moderator and, in the unlikely event that we do find an issue with their behaviour, review this with them.
I've been on the receiving end of or have been witness to inappropriate behaviour from another user. How do I alert the moderators?
Under every post on the platform is a “Report” button. Pressing this will bring up a window which allows you to enter specific details about your report. You can then submit this report to our moderators for review, at which point they will determine what action to take if intervention is required. We take all reports seriously and so ask that you only submit genuine reports that you believe require moderator attention or go against any of the rules outlined above.
I want to post something that might seem to be off-topic or inappropriate but is actually important to my business and I need help with it. How can I do this?
Certain topics are banned from the forum, such as discussions around the sale of drugs, adult content, and anything libellous or relating to illegal activity. There may be certain mitigating circumstances where one of these topics is relevant to your business and needs to be discussed. If this is the case, contact us at [email protected] and we can ensure that (providing the post is appropriate) we alert our moderators that the post has been approved by ourselves.
I want to advertise my services or promote my brand, but your rules won't let me. How do I get my name out there?
We have multiple, constructive ways to get your brand name visible and available on UKBF. Whether it be a sitewide sponsorship, individual forum sponsorship, or a registration in our trade directory. If you are interested in partnering with us through any of these methods, please reach out to us at [email protected] and we can discuss how we can help you. You can also create an advertisement in our Marketplace forum if you register with us for our paid Business Membership.