Last updated 6 October 2026

These terms cover your use of The UK Energy Forum at ukenergyforum.org. By creating an account you agree to them. If you only read the forum, the parts about content and moderation still tell you how it is run.

1. Who runs the forum

The forum is run by Richard Lyon, an individual based in Edinburgh, Scotland (“we”, “us”). Richard is responsible for the forum’s compliance with the Online Safety Act 2023. You can contact us by sending a message to the moderators from inside the forum, or by email using the address on the About page.

2. Joining

  • You must be 18 or over to create an account.
  • One account per person. Organisations may have an account if a named person is responsible for it.
  • You may post under a pseudonym, but you must not pretend to be another person or organisation.
  • Keep your login secure. You are responsible for what is posted from your account.

3. The house rules

  1. Numbers first, tribe never. Argue the mechanism, not the party.
  2. A claim needs a source. Link the primary source where one exists. Unsourced numbers will be challenged, whoever posts them.
  3. Attack the argument, not the person. Strong disagreement is welcome. Contempt isn’t.

4. What is not allowed

You must not post or send anything that:

  • is illegal, or encourages or helps someone to commit a crime;
  • threatens, harasses or abuses anyone, or stirs up hatred against people because of who they are;
  • publishes someone else’s private information, such as their home address, phone number or private messages, without their permission;
  • impersonates another person or organisation;
  • infringes someone else’s copyright. Short quotations with a link to the source are fine;
  • is spam, or advertising that you have not disclosed as such;
  • is defamatory, meaning it states as fact something false that damages a real person’s or organisation’s reputation.

5. Your posts

You keep the rights in what you post. By posting it, you give us permission to show it on the forum, keep it, and include it in the forum’s search and links, for as long as the forum runs. Your posts, username and profile are public and can be found by search engines.

Anyone may quote short extracts of a post with a link back to it, as the normal practice of citation allows.

Members of this forum are speaking for themselves. Nothing posted here is financial, legal or professional advice.

6. How moderation works

Moderators are volunteers who apply these terms evenly, whatever side of an argument a post is on. Any member can flag a post. If several members flag the same post, it may be hidden automatically until a moderator reviews it.

Depending on what has happened, a moderator may:

  • ask you to fix a post, for example by adding a source;
  • edit a post to remove illegal material or someone’s private information, saying that it has been edited;
  • hide or remove a post;
  • warn you, suspend your account for a period, or close it.

We don’t use automated tools to judge what people write. Apart from the forum’s standard spam limits on brand-new accounts, every decision to remove a post or restrict an account is made by a person.

7. Illegal content

You can report a post you believe is illegal by flagging it and choosing “Illegal”, or by sending a message to the moderators. We review reports as quickly as we can and remove illegal content as soon as we are aware of it.

Terrorist material and child sexual abuse material are removed immediately, the account that posted them is closed, and the matter is reported to the police or the National Crime Agency. Other illegal content, including threats, harassment, stalking, hate offences and fraud, is removed and the account may be suspended or closed.

8. Complaints and appeals

You can complain to us if:

  • you think content on the forum is illegal;
  • you think we have not followed these terms, or the law, in how we deal with illegal content or reports;
  • we have removed your post, or warned, suspended or closed your account, and you think we were wrong.

To complain, send a message to the moderators from inside the forum, or email the address on the About page with “Complaint” in the subject line, and include a link to the post or a description of the decision. We will acknowledge your complaint within seven days and tell you the outcome. Where we can, an appeal is reviewed by someone other than the person who made the original decision. If we find we were wrong, we will restore the post or your account.

9. Leaving

You can stop using the forum at any time and ask us to delete your account. See the Privacy notice for what happens to your posts when you do.

We may suspend or close an account that breaks these terms, as set out in section 6.

10. Our responsibility

The forum is free and provided as it is. We will try to keep it running and accurate, but we cannot promise it will always be available or free of errors. We are not responsible for what members post, though we will act on reports as these terms describe. Nothing in these terms limits any liability that the law does not allow to be limited.

11. Changes

If we change these terms, we will post the new version here with a new date. If the change is significant, we will announce it on the forum.

12. Law

These terms are governed by the law of Scotland, and the Scottish courts deal with any dispute. If you live elsewhere in the UK, you may also bring a claim in the courts where you live.