We have put together these Terms and Conditions to make sure you understand what is involved once you have become a member of the Guardian Voices.
- Thank you for your interest in being a member of this panel. By doing so you (“You”) are accepting these terms and conditions.
- If you are not over 16 years of age, you may not take part in this survey
- The Guardian owns the surveys, polls, forums and the website https://guardianvoices.co.uk/ and use a third party provider to host/develop the surveys and the www.guardian.voices.co.uk website on its behalf (the “Promoter“)
- You will need to have internet access to take part in any Guardian Voices activities, and your ability to complete them may be affected by the performance of your internet connection
Your personal data:
To find out what personal data we collect and how we use it, please visit our privacy policy.
Accuracy of information:
The Guardian and the Promoter reserve the right to invalidate any surveys that are illegible, unfinished or unsuitable.
Rewards:
All rewards offered for completing surveys are clearly stated in the survey invitation email. If a survey reward is a prize draw entry, a link to the prize draw rules will be included in the survey or survey invite.
Other:
The Guardian and the Promoter provide no warranty that the website on which this survey is hosted will operate uninterrupted or error/virus free.
If any provision of these terms and conditions is held invalid by any law, rule, order or regulation of any government or by the final determination of any court of a competent jurisdiction, such invalidity shall not affect the enforceability of any other provisions not held to be valid.
The Guardian reserves the right to change, add or remove parts of these terms and conditions at any time. If any material changes are made, the Guardian will notify you either here or by email.
These terms and conditions are governed by English Law and are subject to the exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts.
Your concerns:
If you have any concerns about this survey or the https://guardianvoices.co.uk/ website, or if you have any concerns or questions regarding the promoter, please contact us.
Membership Conditions
The Guardian Voices Membership
To become a member of the Guardian Voices you must complete and submit the registration survey by clicking on "Sign up".
By registering to join the Guardian Voices you confirm that you have read and accept the following Terms and Conditions. The Guardian Voices is free to modify these Terms and Conditions at any time, and the most up to date version can be viewed at any time on the site.
Confidentiality
Guardian Voices is run by QuMind, an independent insights and software consultancy, at its HQ in London. You can find out more about QuMind at http://www.QuMind.co.uk/. The technology is fuelled by QuMind’s software. QuMind ensures that the personal details you provide on the registration survey (such as your first name, last name and email address) are held in a secure database that cannot be accessed by anyone not directly involved in managing the Guardian Voices.
Any information you provide, either in the registration survey or in subsequent surveys, is confidential and will not be sent on to any third parties, except in rare cases where you have given your consent to the contrary or where necessary for the analysis of results at an aggregate level.
You will not be sold or marketed to in any way by QuMind or any other party as a result of information you provide during the time you participate on the Guardian Voices except in cases where you give specific consent to the contrary.
Laws and Guidelines
QuMind follow the requirements of the Data Protection Act 2018 (Registration Z461462X)
These Terms & Conditions shall be governed by and construed in accordance with English law.
These Terms & Conditions refer to the following additional terms, which also apply to your use of our site:
Our Privacy Policy, which sets out the terms on which we process any personal data we collect from you, or that you provide to us. By using the Guardian Voices community, you consent to such processing and you warrant that all data provided by you is accurate; and our Cookie Policy, which sets out information about the cookies on the Guardian Voices community.
Contact from the Guardian Voices
You will receive regular questionnaires and forum invitations as a member of the Guardian Voices, however you will never be contacted more than 5 times a month. Your participation on all questionnaires is voluntary and as such you may end your participation at any time.
You can unsubscribe from to the Guardian Voices at any time by visiting the website at https://guardianvoices.co.uk/ and following the instructions.
As a member of the Guardian Voices, you may request help from QuMind with technical or research related queries. QuMind will only address such queries where a member has specifically requested help. QuMind will not ask third parties to reply to you on their behalf.
Conduct of Members
Registered members must agree to take sole responsibility for their conduct when using the Guardian Voices website and we will not tolerate:
- The communication of material that is sexually explicit, immoral, dishonest, or of an illegal nature.
- The transmission in any form of a programme or file which is capable of interrupting, destroying, or limiting the capabilities of the website, server, connected networks or other users' computers.
- The transmission of content for commercial reasons, including any advertising or promotional materials.
- Attempts to register more than one account per person.
Community standards
Each member's contribution is valued, and by keeping discussions relevant and respectful, we ensure a positive experience for everyone. We are committed to an inclusive community where every member feels safe and valued. To this end, and to stay consistent with Guardian values, we ask you to observe the following community standards:
- We welcome debate, but personal attacks, persistent trolling or abuse towards individuals will not be tolerated.
This includes vicious or persistent name-calling or accusatory comments; comments which attack the individual rather than the topic or issue; abusive or defamatory phrases (especially those attached to religious, sexual, racial, gender or ethnic contexts); and extreme or contextually-inappropriate profanities directed at an individual. - We understand that people often feel strongly about particular topics, but we will consider removing any content that others might find extremely offensive or threatening.
Please respect other people’s views and beliefs and consider your impact on others when making your contribution. - We will redirect or curtail conversations which descend into generalised arguments.
We don’t want to stop people discussing topics they are enthusiastic about, but we do ask users to find ways of sharing their views that do not feel divisive, threatening or toxic to others. - We will not tolerate racism, sexism, homophobia or other forms of hate-speech, or contributions that could be interpreted as such.
We recognise the difference between criticising a particular government, organisation, community or belief and attacking people on the basis of their race, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability or age. - Keep it relevant.
We know that some conversations can be wide-ranging, but if discussions begin to veer widely off-topic, then some posts may be removed in order to keep the thread on track. - Keep it in the room.
You are free to reference or quote any source you like, but please do not share links to external sites (for example, your own social media pages, company websites or Google search results). These will be removed. - Contribute meaningfully to the discussion.
We will delete any activity that repeatedly and deliberately posts ‘empty’ content, and these posts will not count towards prize draw entries. - Be aware that you may be misunderstood.
Try to be clear about what you are saying and expect that people may understand your contribution differently than you intended. Remember that text isn’t always a great medium for conversation: tone of voice (sarcasm, humour, etc) doesn’t always come across when using words on a screen.
In summary, please act with maturity and consideration for other users and stay on topic.
Moderation Policy
- We will, when necessary, remove comments that do not adhere to the community standards.
If a contribution to the Guardian Voices forum is perceived as breaching the community guidelines set out above, then it will be removed by the moderation team. - Participants who seriously, persistently or wilfully ignore the community standards will be removed from the community site.
We will always look for a more positive and inclusive outcome which aligns with the community standards before taking this step. To do so, we follow a three strike system, detailed below. - Strike system overview:
- First Strike: A warning will be issued, and the inappropriate content will be removed.
- Second Strike: A second warning will be issued, the inappropriate content will be removed, and your interactions will be closely monitored to ensure compliance with guidelines.
- Third Strike: Permanent removal from the community for repeated violations.
- Strikes will be implemented for the following violations of our community standards:
- Personal Attacks: This includes threats, name-calling, or derogatory terms.
- Deliberately Provocative or Offensive Contributions: Posts that are intentionally provocative, offensive, or widely off-topic.
- Hate Speech: Comments that display racism, sexism, homophobia, or other forms of hate speech, or anything that could be interpreted as such.
Any moderation decisions are informed by the context in which comments are made.
The forum/community is managed on behalf of the Guardian research team by a third party, QuMind. All queries about community guidelines, the strike system, moderation or your user account should be directed to QuMind.