The following Terms of Use apply to areas of www.vds.org.uk that allow users to post content ("User Generated Content"), including without limitation in discussion forums, question hours and blogs (“Interactive Services”) on this website.

You agree that your registration for, access to, and participation in any Interactive Services is subject to the following Terms of Use. Also, click here to link to Volunteer Development Scotland’s Privacy Policy. Volunteer Development Scotland does not prescreen User Generated Content.

Volunteer Development Scotland retains the rights but not the responsibility to edit or remove any User Generated Content or terminate your account for any reason its sole discretion.

1. Registration Instructions
You must become a registered user ("Registrant") in order to post User Generated Content to a Forum. You can register at www.vds.org.uk. Registrants must create a user ID and password ("Profile"), or be given one explicitly by Volunteer Development Scotland in order to create and access accounts through which they can participate in Interactive Services.

2. Rules for the Forums

• Be Relevant. Each Interactive Service is dedicated to a topic designed to help people share information about relevant topics in volunteering and related subjects.
• Stay on topic. Do not talk about anything else off topic. Be Constructive. Post only constructive comments and questions.
• Be Courteous. Flaming and insults are prohibited. Do not post content that is offensive, libelous, defamatory, indecent, harmful, harassing, intimidating, threatening, hateful, abusive, vulgar, obscene, pornographic, sexually explicit, or offensive in a sexual, racial, cultural, or ethnic context.
• Be Private. Do not post personal information, including your email address, IM address, or phone number. Do not solicit personally identifiable information from other Registrants or Website users.
• Be Personal. The Forums are not to be used for any commercial purpose. Do not post any advertising or commercial content whatsoever. Do not post any content that involves the transmission of "junk mail," "chain letters," or unsolicited mass mailing or "spamming." Be Yourself. Do not impersonate anyone else.
• Be True. Do not post any content that includes information that is false, misleading, inaccurate, fraudulent, or deceptive, or that promotes illegal activities;
• Be Legal. Do not post any content that violates any applicable Scots, UK or European law. Do not post any content, or take any action, that is designed to interrupt, destroy or limit the functionality of any computer software or hardware or telecommunications equipment or to interfere with or disrupt the Website or services connected to the Website.

3. Legal

Volunteer Development Scotland’s rights to Your Posting. Your User Generated Content is not confidential or proprietary. You grant to Volunteer Development Scotland a non-exclusive, non-revocable, worldwide, perpetual right to use your User Generated Content in any manner or media now or later known without limitation including but not limited to the right to sublicense and assign and commercialize without any compensation due to you.

Changes to these Terms. Volunteer Development Scotland reserves the right to modify these Terms of Use at any time. Your continued use of the Website shall be deemed to be your conclusive acceptance of any modified Terms of Use. If any future change is unacceptable to you, you should discontinue using the website.

Ownership. You are responsible for ensuring that any User Generated Content that you post does not, and will not, violate the rights of any third party rights of any kind. You warrant and represent that you own or control all rights in any User Generated Content that you post to any Interactive Service.

Safeguard your Profile. Do not allow any third party to use your Profile to access the Website. You agree to notify Volunteer Development Scotland immediately of any unauthorized use of their Profile or the Website. You agree that Volunteer Development Scotland shall not be liable for any loss that results from the unauthorized use of your Profile, either with or without your knowledge.

General Use. You acknowledge and agree that Volunteer Development Scotland does not have any obligation to review User Generated Content, that Volunteer Development Scotland is not in any manner responsible for User Generated Content, that Volunteer Development Scotland does not guarantee the accuracy, integrity or quality of User Generated Content, and that Volunteer Development Scotland cannot assure that harmful, inaccurate, deceptive, offensive, threatening, defamatory, unlawful or otherwise objectionable User Generated Content will not appear on the Website. You also acknowledge that by providing you with the ability to access, view and/or post User Generated Content on the website, Volunteer Development Scotland is merely acting as a passive conduit for such distribution and is not undertaking any obligation or liability relating to any User Generated Content or activities of Registrants or users on the website.

Copyright Infringement. If your work has been copied and posted on the Website in a way that constitutes copyright infringement, please notify Volunteer Development Scotland.

Disclaimer of Warranties and Limitations of Liability. For important information about Volunteer Development Scotland's disclaimer of warranties and limitation of liability arising from your use of this Website, including, without limitation, with respect to any User Generated Content.

Notwithstanding the foregoing, you acknowledge and agree that Volunteer Development Scotland has the absolute right to monitor User Generated Content posted to the Website in its sole discretion. In addition, Volunteer Development Scotland reserves the right to alter, edit, refuse to post or remove any such User Generated Content, in whole or in part, for any reason or for no reason, and to disclose such User Generated Content and the circumstances surrounding their transmission to any third party. You agree that we do not have any obligation to use or respond to any User Generated Content.

You agree that you shall immediately notify Volunteer Development Scotland in writing of any objectionable content appearing on the Website. Volunteer Development Scotland will make reasonable efforts to investigate allegations that any User Generated Content violates these Terms of Use but (a) makes no warranty to you that it will edit, remove, or continue to permit the display of any specific User Generated Content, whether or not subject to such allegations, and (b) will have no liability whatsoever for editing, removing, or continuing to permit the display of any User Generated Content whatsoever.

Any use of any content on this website, including, without limitation, User Generated Content will be at your own risk. WITHOUT LIMITING THE GENERALITY OF THE FOREGOING, YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT VOLUNTEER DEVELOPMENT SCOTLAND IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY USER GENERATED CONTENT THAT PURPORTS TO GIVE LEGAL ADVICE OR LEGAL GUIDANCE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A LEGALLY QUALIFIED ADVISOR.

You may not post or otherwise distribute content to the website which Volunteer Development Scotland in its sole discretion determines to be abusive, harassing, threatening, defamatory, obscene, an impersonation of others, fraudulent, deceptive, misleading, in violation of a copyright, trademark or other intellectual property right of another, invasive of privacy or publicity rights, in violation of any other right of Volunteer Development Scotland or another party, illegal, or otherwise objectionable to Volunteer Development Scotland. You may not upload commercial content on the website or use the website to solicit others to join or become members of any other commercial online service or other organization. You may be required to register and/or agree to additional terms of use prior to being permitted to post or otherwise distribute User Generated Content to this website.

• We hope that this website will be of interest to you, but we accept no responsibility and offer no warranties in relation to the content of the website and your use of it, to the fullest extent that the law permits us to exclude such liability.
• The services and materials on this site are provided "as is" and without warranties of any kind, either express or implied. We disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including but not limited to implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.
• Volunteer Development Scotland does not warrant that any functions contained in www.vds.org.uk will be uninterrupted or error-free, that defects will be corrected, or that volunteerscotland.org.uk or the server that makes it available is free of viruses or other harmful components.
• Volunteer Development Scotland does not warrant or make any representations regarding the use or the results of the use of the materials in this site in terms of their correctness, accuracy, reliability, or otherwise. You assume the entire cost of all necessary servicing, repair or correction.
• Applicable law may not allow the exclusion of implied warranties, so the above exclusion may not apply to you.
• All use of our website is subject to Scots law and the jurisdiction of the Scottish courts and is subject to this disclaimer. Any views expressed in messages on our website are not necessarily those of Volunteer Development Scotland or anyone connected with us.
• We make no representations whatsoever about any other websites which you may be able to access through our website or which may link to our website. When you access any other website through our website you must understand that it is separate from Volunteer Scotland and that we have no control over the content or availability of other websites.
• In addition even although there is a link to another website from our own website, this does not mean that Volunteer Development Scotland endorses or accepts responsibility for the content, or the use of, such a website and we shall not be responsible for any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with your use of, such a website and we shall not be responsible for any loss or damage caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with your use of or reliance on any content, goods or services available on or through any other website linked to or from our own. Any concerns regarding any external link from our website should be directed to its website administrator or webmaster.