Appendix A: Code of Conduct

NCSS Websites - Terms of Use

Thank you for being part of our Internet community. To ensure the best possible experience for all members, we have established some basic guidelines for participation.

This website (including, but not limited to, text, content, graphics, video, and audio) is protected by copyright as a collective work or compilation under U.S. copyright and other laws. Any unauthorized republication or redistribution is strictly prohibited. You may, however, create links to any URL on this website without receiving prior permission.

By joining and using this website, you agree that you have read and will follow these rules and guidelines. You also agree to reserve discussions and shared files and content to that best suited to the medium. This is a great medium with which to solicit the advice of your peers, benefit from their experience, and participate in an ongoing conversation. Questions should be directed to our Member Services department via the Contact Us link on this site. Technical questions on website issues should directed to our webmaster.

Please take a moment to acquaint yourself with these important guidelines. If you have questions, contact the member services department. In order to preserve a climate that encourages both civil and fruitful dialogue, we reserve the right to suspend or terminate membership on this Internet community for anyone who violates these rules.

The Rules

• Respect your audience. Individual contributors can be held personally liable for any commentary deemed to be defamatory, obscene, proprietary, or libelous. Don’t use ethnic slurs, personal insults, obscenity, or express comments that would not be acceptable in a professional workplace. Show proper consideration for others’ privacy. Do not post anything that you would not want the world to see or that you would not want anyone to know came from you.
• Get your facts straight. Do not misrepresent the work of others and be sure to provide citations when possible. Respect copyright, fair use and disclosure laws.
• Don't challenge or attack others. The discussions and comments are meant to stimulate conversation not to create contention.
• Don't post commercial messages on any discussion list, resource library entry, or other area where others might see it. The sharing of resources and identification of “best practices” is encouraged however, use caution not to advertise or promote products/organizations for personal gain.
• Please note carefully all items listed in the disclaimer and legal rules below, particularly regarding the copyright ownership of information posted.
• Remember that other participants have the right to reproduce postings to this site unless you specify otherwise.
• Post your message or documents only to the most appropriate lists or libraries. Do not spam several lists or libraries with the same message.
• All messages must add to the body of knowledge. We reserve the right to reject any message for any reason.

Discussion Group Etiquette

• Include a signature tag on all messages. Include your name, affiliation, location.
• State concisely and clearly the topic of your comments in the subject line. This allows members to respond more appropriately to your posting and makes it easier for members to search the archives by subject.
• Include only the relevant portions of the original message in your reply. Delete any header information, and put your response before the original posting.
• Only send a message to the entire list when it contains information that everyone can benefit from.
• Send messages such as "thanks for the information" or "me, too" to individuals--not to the entire list. Do this by using the "Reply to Sender" link to the left of every message.
• Do not send administrative messages, such as remove me from the list. Instead, use the web interface to change your settings or to remove yourself from a list. If you are changing e-mail addresses, you do not need to remove yourself from the list and rejoin under your new e-mail address. Simply change your settings.
• Warn other list subscribers of lengthy messages either in the subject line or at the beginning of the message body with a line that says "Long Message."

The Legal Stuff

This site is provided as a service for the members of National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS). NCSS is not responsible for the opinions and information posted on this site by others. We disclaim all warranties with regard to information posted on this site, whether posted by NCSS or any third party; this disclaimer includes all implied warranties of merchantability and fitness. In no event shall NCSS be liable for any special, indirect, or consequential damages or any damages whatsoever resulting from loss of use, data, or profits, arising out of or in connection with the use or performance of any information posted on this site.

This website contains information about programs, products, and services offered by third parties, as well as links to third-party websites. The presence of a listing or such information does not constitute an endorsement by NCSS of a particular company or organization, or its programs, products, or services.

Note: Legitimate websites (or Internet “domains”) sometimes change ownership. When this happens, the content may change drastically, so that a site offering lesson plans for middle school teachers may become a site devoted to the human anatomy in its most natural state. A good link can turn into a bad one overnight. NCSS is aware of no tool for detecting this automatically. We manually check our links to outside web pages to the best of our ability and remove those that are no longer appropriate. If you find a link on this website to a page that is crude or offensive, please report it to the NCSS webmaster. Please include the URL (“web address”) of the offending site and the URL (page) on the NCSS website containing the link to that site.

NCSS does not prescreen User Generated Content. NCSS retains the rights, but not the responsibility, to edit or remove any User Generated Content and/or terminate your account for any reason in its sole discretion.

Copyright

Do not post any information or other material protected by copyright without the permission of the copyright owner. By posting material, the posting party warrants and represents that he or she owns the copyright with respect to such material or has received permission from the copyright owner. In addition, the posting party grants NCSS and users of this site the nonexclusive right and license to display, copy, publish, distribute, transmit, print, and use such information or other material.

Inappropriate Postings

NCSS does not actively monitor the site for inappropriate postings and does not on its own undertake editorial control of postings. However, in the event that any inappropriate posting is brought to the attention of NCSS we will take all appropriate action.     

NCSS reserves the right to terminate access to any user who does not abide by these guidelines.