Opinion Website Rules?

[Raven_Writer]

Originally Posted by Billfred

(standard IANAL warning)

Opinions? Just watch out for libel and slander.

And if you represent anyone (read: your team, your job, etc.), you may want to put a disclaimer in.

Libel?

Thanks also for the tips/warnings

I had a feeling about the rep. one though

[Billfred]

Wikipedia on Libel

Libel is actually what you need to be worried about--it's defamation of character in a written form. Slander is just the spoken form.

[MissInformation]

You will want to have a Legal Notice and Acceptable Use Policy for your site. If you have one of these then I believe you are pretty protected from libel. To be extra safe, you may want to have your site set up so that everyone who joins has to acknowledge they have read that page.

Here's an example AUP This is a good start, but this AUP is for a site that is completely unmoderated so you should check out the AUP pages for some moderated sites as well, unless you are planning on having a unmoderated site.

Heidi

[Raven_Writer]

Originally Posted by MissInformation

You will want to have a Legal Notice and Acceptable Use Policy for your site. If you have one of these then I believe you are pretty protected from libel. To be extra safe, you may want to have your site set up so that everyone who joins has to acknowledge they have read that page.

Here's an example AUP This is a good start, but this AUP is for a site that is completely unmoderated so you should check out the AUP pages for some moderated sites as well, unless you are planning on having a unmoderated site.

Heidi

Thanks

Thing is, it's more of a one-man thing (aka: only my opinions) for now, and I'm really not going to have a forum (I'm doing this on a free server [Brinkster]).

But, basically what you are saying is to have some sort of thing saying"this site will contain content you may not agree with, or etc...; if you do not agree to these rules, then please leave"?

[MissInformation]

Originally Posted by Raven_Writer

Thanks

Thing is, it's more of a one-man thing (aka: only my opinions) for now, and I'm really not going to have a forum (I'm doing this on a free server [Brinkster]).

But, basically what you are saying is to have some sort of thing saying"this site will contain content you may not agree with, or etc...; if you do not agree to these rules, then please leave"?

Heh, I guess I like forums so much I think all sites are going to be forums.

Well, always have a disclaimer that it is your opinion, and really be careful that what you state is factual.

Heidi

[Tristan Lall]

Originally Posted by MissInformation

To be extra safe, you may want to have your site set up so that everyone who joins has to acknowledge they have read that page.

Realistically, that's clumsier than a normal splash page. I'd suggest linking to your legal policy page instead--for instance, put a small link at the bottom of every page, or in the navigation pane, if you have one.

[Raven_Writer]

Originally Posted by Tristan Lall

Realistically, that's clumsier than a normal splash page. I'd suggest linking to your legal policy page instead--for instance, put a small link at the bottom of every page, or in the navigation pane, if you have one.

What I was planning on doing is putting it in a little menu of it's own on the right side of the page (like my poetry page [link in sig]). I think a link to the page might do a lot better though.