PhD researcher asking for terms of service modification

Dear all,

I am a PhD student at Queen Mary University of London and I would like to build an online forum in order to gather people who suffer from sexual intrusive thoughts (a sub-type of OCD). The aim is to analyse how they use language in order to communicate their pain.

Since my project deals with a sensitive topic and that my project needs to be accepted by my university's Research Ethics Committee, I wanted to ask you the following:

I know that according to this page you usually don't let forum admins change the terms of service that users have to read before registering. Is there a way that we could do an exception for my case? Of course the terms of service that I want to modify will be based on the terms that are already available. Below you can see how I imagine that page to look like.

I beg the person who is responsible for this to get in touch with me through private message or at least to leave this thread open until I can respond back. Since Forumotion offers what I need for my study, I really want to use it!

Best wishes,

Elvis Coimbra Gomes
http://linguistics.sllf.qmul.ac.uk/linguistics/people/research/elvis-coimbra-gomes.html

P.S: So here is the text that I want to include on that "Terms of Service" page (it still needs to get approval from Ethics Committee):

EDIT: [Erased]

Hello,

There is no way to change the terms of use users read at sign up. There is also no way to make exceptions for the global tos. Main reason for this is 1. Our tos is formed around French laws and international laws alike and since we are a free service we cant have any forums possibly breaking a law, 2. If we gave exceptions to 1 person we have to give exceptions all and it would create all kinds of headaches.

Number 1 is the main reason though.

So sorry, this won't happen.

-Brandon

Thank you brandon_g for your response.

I understand your point. Would it be possible though to add further lines to the terms that are already available? And to put my ''Informed Consent'' before your terms of service? So actually it is not a matter of changing the terms of service that you already have, but it's a question of complementing them for my study...

What you could do is have a HTML page that will load up as a home page before they make an account.

But as there is no tool's on the ACP to add new data to the main TOS page then No sorry.

Thank you for your response.

Could you please advise me on how to get it done? (other platforms that could provide this?)

Sadly We would not know who would have this system you would like.

As we only deal with support for FM we would not know the tools of other forum systems other than our own

Sorry.

I mean you are allowed add on to our terms of use on sign up page, you could simply create a topic with the terms of use you wish to enforce or what not in a seperate topic and then include the link to it on the terms of use that is on the sign up page (that is what I do on my forum). You can do this by going to ACP (admin panel)-->General-->FAQ&tou (last 2 options on the bottom), click terms of use, then you should be able to add stuff to the very bottom of the tou.

-Brandon

That is a very good solution. However, as you might know, people are not patient enough to go for all the details...

I really need to build that page in a way that people don't feel overwhelmed with it. Otherwise the possibility that they don't read it at all is larger than if I try to make it as I want and provide all information in a non-repetitive/simple way...

I know that it might sound cliché, but I assure you that people are lazy and usually don't want to lose time with such terms

ok i have found away but it will sort of look funny

in the ACP you have a setting to add to the Forum Terms of service.

To do this Go to ACP >> General Tab >>  Rules and FAQ
Click on the one that says >> Additional Rules Then add your new rules in there.

only problem is the red text that says

By clicking on " I agree to these terms " below:
- You acknowledge to have fully read these current rules;
- You commit yourself to respect unreservedly these current rules;
- You grant the moderators of this forum the right to delete, move or edit any discussion subject at any moment.

your new text will be under that.

see screen shot:

The topic was posted in the wrong section, so I have moved it to the correct section. Please read our forum rules: ESF General Rules

Okay we can change it a little more you can put the text you want at the top of all the rules but you need to know how to use your templates for this

if you want this change i can help you

I did as you told me to:
http://sexualocdletmego.forumactif.com/register

It does look strange

The last thing that you proposed would be really awesome!

Is it tricky to make this work like that?


Other questions popped into my mind if that wouldn't work:
1) Is there a way to create another page presenting my terms that would follow this fixed TOS page before registering?

2) If I want to insert a video below that fixed TOS text, am I allowed to put a thumbnail picture on the video that says something like "Don't read above, watch me!" ?

Thanks again for your valuable help, you are awesome!

To add it to the top of your forum Rules you only have to change one little code.

ACP > Display tab >>  Templates >> Click >> General
Find : agreement click the yellow cog >>
Remove all the code then add this one in it's place.

Code:

<!-- BEGIN switch_user_logged_in --><p class="right rightside">{LAST_VISIT_DATE}</p><!-- END switch_user_logged_in -->
<p>{CURRENT_TIME}</p>


<!-- BEGIN switch_fb_explain -->
<div class="panel">
   <div class="inner">
      <span class="corners-top"><span></span></span>
      <img src="https://2img.net/i/fa/admin/icones/big_ico/warning.png" class="left" alt="" />
      <div id="fb_explain">{switch_fb_explain.FB_EXPLAIN}</div>
      <span class="corners-bottom"><span></span></span>
   </div>
</div>
<!-- END switch_fb_explain -->

<div class="panel">
   <div class="inner"><span class="corners-top"><span></span></span>
      {MY_RULES}
                {AGREEMENT}<br />
      
   <span class="corners-bottom"><span></span></span></div>
</div>

<div class="panel">
   <div class="inner"><span class="corners-top"><span></span></span>
      <p class="center"><a class="button1 cgu-buttons" href="{U_AGREE_OVER13}">{AGREE_OVER_13}</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;
         <a class="button2 cgu-buttons" href="{U_INDEX}">{DO_NOT_AGREE}</a>
      </p>
   <span class="corners-bottom"><span></span></span></div>
</div>

Then click the green tick to publish your change.

if you want to make a page then you will have to make a home page then add a button that will then take you to the main new account page. but that is a long way around it and can take a long time to make.

Oh wow!!!

Yes! That is really what I needed! Thank you so much APE. Would it be possible to maintain this thread open if I ever needed further help? I am actually designing the 'test' forum that then needs to be approved the the Committee.

Thank you again

I am sure you can open a new topic for other problems on your forum. If you now need some more help according to this question we would gladly answer you. If not, we can archive this topic and if you have any more questions you can create a new topic and we can help you there! This way we can link other members with similar problems to answers!

No if this problem is now solved you need to click the solved button at the top of this thread.

If you have any other problems you want help with you have to make a new thread for each one.

Much thanks

APE.