All participants in CCS’s community areas are expected to abide by the 10 guidelines below. These guidelines directly inform our approach to community moderation and apply across the site. Moderation decisions are also informed by the context in which comments are made.

1. We welcome debate and dissent, but personal attacks (on authors, other users or any individual), persistent trolling and mindless abuse will not be tolerated. The key to maintaining caricom.org as an inviting space is to focus on intelligent discussion of topics.
2. We acknowledge criticism of the articles we publish, but will not allow persistent misrepresentation of the CCS  to be published on our website. For the sake of robust debate, we will distinguish between constructive, focused argument and smear tactics.
3. We understand that people often feel strongly about issues debated on the site, 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.
4. We reserve the right to redirect or curtail conversations which descend into flame-wars based on generalizations. 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.
5. 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 criticizing a particular government, organisation, community or belief and attacking people on the basis of their race, religion, sex, gender, sexual orientation, disability or age.
6. We will remove any content that may put us in legal jeopardy, such as potentially libelous or defamatory postings, or material posted in potential breach of copyright.
7. We will remove any posts that are obviously commercial or otherwise spam-like. Our aim is that this site should provide a space for people to interact with our content and each other, and we actively discourage commercial entities passing themselves off as individuals, in order to post advertising material or links. This may also apply to people or organizations who frequently post propaganda or external links without adding substantively to the quality of the discussion on caricom.org.
8. Be relevant. We know that some conversations can be wide-ranging, but if you post something which is unrelated to the original topic ("off-topic") then it may be removed, in order to keep the thread on track. This also applies to queries or comments about moderation, which should not be posted as comments.
9. Be aware that you may be misunderstood, so 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 and so on) doesn't always come across when using words on a screen. You can help to keep CCS community areas open to all viewpoints by maintaining a reasonable tone, even in unreasonable circumstances.
10. The platform is ours, but the discussion belongs to everybody.  It is to be a welcoming space for intelligent discussion, and we expect participants to help us achieve this by notifying us of potential problems and helping each other to keep conversations inviting and appropriate. If you spot something problematic in community interaction areas, please report it. When we all take responsibility for maintaining an appropriate and constructive environment, the debate itself is improved and everyone benefits.

In short:

• If you act with maturity and consideration for other users, you should have no problems.
• Don't be unpleasant. Demonstrate and share the intelligence, wisdom and humor we know you possess.
• Take some responsibility for the quality of the conversations in which you're participating. Help make this an intelligent place for discussion and it will be.

Terms of services

All materials contained on this site are protected by Trinidad and Tobago copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of the Caricom Secretariat or in the case of third party materials, the owner of that content. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. Links to Web sites other than those owned by Caricom Secretariat are offered as a service to readers. The editorial staff of Caricom Secretariat was not involved in their production and is not responsible for their content.

Message Boards and Weblogs

Visitors are encouraged to share their views.

All forums are moderated, and messages found to violate common standards of decency will be removed. Management reserves the right to remove posts or threads of discussions at our discretion.

Users shall not upload to, or distribute, or otherwise publish through this website any content which is obscene, pornographic and abusive or otherwise violates any law.

The forums (blogs and message boards) shall be used only in a non-commercial manner. Users shall not, without the express approval of the administrators, distribute or otherwise publish any material containing any solicitation of funds, advertising or solicitation for goods or services.

Respond once to someone on a thread then allow others to comment before you respond again to the person. If your responses follow each others then you can come over as attempting to monopolize discussions.

We will delete ALL the posts from posters who attempt to monopolize the forums, especially those who do it under various usernames.

Sharing profiles/registered accounts is not allowed. In other words, a separate account for each user is required on the forums. Only one account/username per user is allowed.

While we do not and cannot review every message posted by users and are not responsible for any content of these messages, the administrators or designated agents reserve the right to delete, move or edit messages that we, in our discretion, deem abusive, defamatory, obscene, in violation of copyright, fair use or trademark laws, or otherwise unacceptable. Users shall remain solely responsible for the content of their messages.

No unreasonable personal attacks allowed (unreasonable will be determined by moderators). By viewing or posting to this Website, you agree to indemnify and hold harmless Caricom Secretariat of any claims resulting from your usage, which damage yourself, or any party.

The moderators are volunteers. They provide their time and their judgement to this website free of charge, and the administrators of this website are grateful for their help.

The administrators of this website are busy people. Feel free to contact us about any issue. But please bear in mind that we may not be able to respond immediately, and we may not give you the answer you want. Also, be aware that we do not respond kindly to threats or other strong-arm tactics.

Please respect the privacy of others.

Disclaimer

Some of the information and services found on this Web site have been provided by external sources. The CCS is not responsible for the accuracy, reliability or currency of the information or services provided by external sources. Users wishing to rely upon this information or services should consult directly with the appropriate and relevant source.

Copyright/Permission to Reproduce

Materials on this Web site were produced and/or compiled by the CCS for the purpose of providing its users with direct access to its products and services. The material on this site is covered by the provisions of  the COMMUNITY  laws, policies, regulations and international agreements. Such provisions serve to identify the information source and, in specific instances, to prohibit reproduction of materials without written permission.

Non-commercial Reproduction

The information on this site has been posted with the intent that it be readily available for personal, public and non commercial use and may not be reproduced, in part or in whole by any means, without charge or further permission from the caricom secretariat. Under these guidelines: Users should exercise due diligence in ensuring the accuracy of the materials reproduced; Guardian Media Limited/ Trinidad Guardian should be identified as the source; The reproduction should not represented as an official version of the materials reproduced; No reproduction should be made as being linked, affiliated or endorsed with the Guardian Media Limited; All artwork, video and graphics on this site remain the sole property of Guardian Media Limited; This website and its resources should not to be used to publish any obscene, indecent, defamatory, discriminatory, and/or sexist materials; This website and its resources should not to be used to conduct the personal business of staff; and, This website and its resources should not to be used as a propaganda tool by anyone or as a medium to air dissatisfaction and grievances by any officer.