Disclaimer:  
This disclaimer refers to the Medway Cafe Scientifique web site which is accessible via the address http://www.medwaycafe.org or any of its variations. This is the official web site of Medway Cafe Scientifique, but not of the global Cafe Scientifique organisation.   The Medway Cafe Scientifique web site is under constant change and development and the information it contains is subject to change without notice. Whilst the publishers makes every effort to ensure that the content of its web site is accurate, the site publishers cannot accept liability for the accuracy of all content at any given point in time.   The publisher is not responsible for the content of external web sites which may be linked to or from our web site.   The publisher makes every effort to ensure that its external links are free from viruses but accepts no liability for damage caused by viruses acquired from or appearing to have been acquired from the Medway Cafe Scientifique web site.  Downloadable slides are © copyright of the presenter and or their affiliated organisation and are provided with their kind permission for personal use only.  For any other use, then permission should be sought from the presenter.

What is Medway Café Forum?  
The forum is an Internet based bulletin board where topics of science can be discussed openly, questions raised, opinions sought, or ideas aired.  It has been developed primarily to support the presentations given at the regular talks to allow further questions to be asked, but can be used to question science in general.

Who can join?
Anyone! The forum is open to anyone with an interest in science.  You do not need to be a scientist or engineer.  Part of the registration requires a declaration of age (i.e. were you born before or after a given date—no need to tell us how old you are!).  Under the age of thirteen, a parent or guardian must sign and return a permission agreement to the site hosts before the account is activated, following the COPPA guidelines.  We take child protection on the Internet seriously.

Does it cost anything to join?
No. It’s free for all to use.

How do I join?  
To fully participate in the forum, you must register with a username, password and email address.  By default, your email address is not made public on the forum.  Your choice of user name and password is up to you.  Before you become active, your registration will be checked and approved by the site administrators, upon which you will receive a welcome message through your email address. Please allow up to 48 hours for account activation.  If you have trouble registering, please contact the site administrator here.

What are the rules?  
Be polite and be yourself.  Do not be afraid to ask any science or technology question, or give an opinion on something you read.  Feel free to browse through all the discussions and topics, and if registered, participate in the polls that appear from time-to-time.  However, any abusive language or messages may result in the offender being removed from the forum.  We have language filters in place to automatically “censor” certain words, but please report anything that gets through.

If I find something abusive, what do I do?  
The forum management will normally pick most things up, but please report anything you find to the administrators via email to forum@medwaycafe.org.  Please refrain from replying to or commenting on any such posts.

Does this web site make a profit?  
No. We do not make any money from the forum or Medway Café Scientifique web site.  It is provide free for open scientific discussion.  With the exception of the sponsors links, there will be no other forms of advertising on the site.

Who owns and runs this site?  
We like to think the visitors to the Medway Café Scientifique meetings and users own the site—it is what you make it by your contributions. Development, hosting, monitoring and maintenance of the site is provided by Cantium Scientific Limited.

What if I need help in using the forum?  
Firstly, take a look at the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section—that tends to answer most issues.  If this does not answer your question, please contact us via forum@medwaycafe.org.

What about privacy of my information?  
Your privacy is important.  The site is hosted by Cantium Scientific Limited and as such assume responsibility for the protection of your data under the Data Protection Act 1998.  Cantium Scientific Limited are registered under the act, registration number Z8296383.  We will not divulge any information provided in the registration forms when signing up to the forum.  We will only contact you through the forum for issues relating to the forum or Medway Café Scientifique.  Unless you know the individual on the forum, we recommend you make use of the personal messaging facility if you need to contact them directly rather than the email contact option.

Information posted on the forum is the responsibility of the individual posting such information.  The providers of this site and forum assume no responsibility for any information posted by users.  We do not ask for telephone numbers, addresses, or any other personal information.  All you need to provide is an email address.

How do I make a suggestion to improve the site?  
If you have any suggestions for how we can improve the site, please suggest this by emailing forum@medwaycafe.org.